News of the World
Today, 04:47 AM
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USA
Quote:Crowds on Demand CEO Adam Swart told "Fox & Friends" on Friday that his company has received 400% more paid protester requests this year than during the same period last year.
Fox News' Lawrence Jones asked the Crowds on Demand CEO how much the paid protesters that he curates for political protests typically make for their services.
"We don't comment on specific protests, but generally the range can be from the low hundreds, the low one hundreds, into a few hundred," he told Jones. "It really depends on the location, the duration and any challenges, for example, cold weather or early morning. You guys at 'Fox & Friends' know all about getting up early in the morning. We tend to pay people more [for] that."
Swart's company, Crowds on Demand, states on its website that they are "best known for organizing passionate demonstrations, rallies, flash-mobs, corporate PR events, and light-hearted events such as paparazzi, brand ambassadors, and PR stunts."
The CEO noted that while there is "a lot of misinformation online" about paid protesters, the individuals employed by Crowds on Demand are only deployed for "peaceful and law-abiding protest," and are focused on "persuasion."
When asked by Jones whether protesters are paid on an hourly basis, and how much they are paid per hour, Swart didn't answer the question directly but offered some insight into what circumstances would warrant an increased pay rate.
"It's hard to give you a specific figure… If you're organizing a conservative demonstration in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that would be a higher pay rate — or a left-wing demonstration in rural Mississippi, that would be a higher rate, because finding and identifying those people is harder and that might be a more tense environment in those particular locations, as you would imagine," he explained.
Jones then asked the CEO whether the people who are being paid to protest at political events are typically aligned with the causes that they are protesting for, or if they're "just out for a paycheck."
"They genuinely share these beliefs, and I'll put it this way, right? I'm asking your listeners, your viewers right now, if you got paid a couple hundred dollars, probably mostly your viewers lean conservative, would you guys go to a BLM protest for a couple hundred dollars?" he proposed. "I bet most of your viewers are shouting into their TV screens, ‘No, I would not do that’, right?"
"So whether it's conservative, we provide — there's a lot of misinformation that we only work for the left. We work for the left and the right, but always on the side of common sense and generally on the side of the underdog. So we, a lot of conservatives, use our service because, a lot of times, there's a case where hippies with a trust fund are out there protesting, but conservatives are more likely to have jobs and families, so actually they require a little bit more of an incentive to turn out to a demonstration."
Following up on Swart's response, Jones asked the CEO which side of the political aisle hires more paid protesters from his company, the right or left.
"So we tend to be hired by the oppositional party, right? So, in the sense of right now, we are getting more requests on the federal level from Democrats, as you would imagine. But for example, in liberal states such as California, we are often brought in by conservatives because we are an outside-the-box strategy, right?" Swart responded, adding that the number of paid protesters requested by either side of the aisle "depends on who's in power."
Quote:Wild, newly released dashcam footage shows the Democrats’ choice to run for governor in South Carolina getting arrested recently in just his underwear — while swearing, using the n-word and referring to himself as both God and Superman.
Married father of four William “Mullins” McLeod, 53, is facing calls from his own party to step down from the gubernatorial race that he only formally entered Monday after video emerged a day later of his bizarre arrest just months earlier in May, according to WCBD.
The prominent attorney was stopped in downtown Charleston while “yelling at the top of his lungs” and wearing only underwear and shoes, according to a police report — which suggested he showed signs “typical of an individual under the influence of a stimulant narcotic.”
The Dem referred to his upcoming election race — even threatening to kick an opponent’s “f–king teeth in” — while refusing to tell cops his name, instead referring to himself as God and Superman, the hour-long video released through a Freedom of Information Act request shows.
“It doesn’t matter, my friend, trust me,” he told one officer when asked his name. “I’m one of the most just humans to ever walk this soil,” he said.
“Superman sounds good,” he added bizarrely.
McLeod also issued threats toward current and former Palmetto State politicians during the profanity-laden rant.
“I’m gonna kick your f–king teeth in,” he says at one point, appearing to reference Republican Attorney General Alan Wilson, who announced his bid for governor earlier this summer.
McLeod — who is heard uttering the n-word at least twice in the video — also refuses to get out of the patrol car when it arrives at the jail, instead telling an officer he would sleep in the back seat.
Quote:Upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to come clean about this year’s massive corrections workers strike and whether she knew about the brewing “powder keg” in state prisons.
The Republican North Country rep, in a statement first obtained by The Post, said Hochul “must immediately address” a new report by the prison workers’ union largely blaming the state for allegedly ignoring warning signs of the simmering crisis and strike threats.
“What did she know, when did she know it, and why did she refuse to act?,” Stefanik writes in the statement.
Thousands of corrections officers illegally walked off the job in February, requiring Hochul to deploy over 6,000 National Guard troops to supplement staffing shortages in the problem-plagued facilities.
The memo from the state Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association issued last week alleged its leadership had showed a top Hochul aide a video of members threatening to strike at an annual meeting weeks earlier, and were told the issue would be raised to the governor.
“The deterioration of prison conditions statewide and the indifference of the State’s elected leaders to cries for help from the rank-and-file pushed staff to the breaking point, and then they broke,” the union memo reads.
Stefanik — who is widely believed to be mounting a Republican challenge to Hochul in next year’s gubernatorial election — slammed the Democrat for allegedly failing to act to prevent the strike.
“The union representing Correction Officers stated they warned Kathy Hochul before their strike that prisons were a dangerous powder keg, a strike was imminent, and that lives of officers were at risk. Hochul did nothing,” Stefanik wrote.
While the Hochul administration declared an end to the strike in early March, upwards of 2,000 National Guard troops remain to backfill staffing holes at the facilities, which are 4,000 to 5,000 personnel short of the Department of Corrections and Community Supervisions’ ideal staffing level, Commissioner Daniel Martuscello wrote in a recent court filing.
The department was already suffering from staffing shortages even before the strike, a report from the state comptroller’s office said last month.
A spokesperson for Hochul, in response to Stefanik’s statement, accused the congresswoman of condoning the illegal strike and called the corrections officers’ demands “unrealistic.”
Quote:Hunter Biden crassly brushed aside first lady Melania Trump’s threat to sue him for $1 billion if he doesn’t retract “false” and “defamatory” comments linking her and her husband to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“F–k that. That’s not going to happen,” Biden said with an arrogant smile during an interview on YouTube show “Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan” released Thursday.
The first lady’s team revealed Wednesday that it had put the scandal-scarred former first son on notice for suggesting that Epstein introduced Melania to her husband, President Trump.
Melania’s office has made similar threats to other media figures and outlets. Last month, for example, the Daily Beast retracted an article that peddled similar claims after being warned of legal action.
Democratic strategist James Carville also apologized and scrubbed an episode of his podcast last week in which he speculated there was an “Epstein connection” involving the first lady.
“Failure to comply will leave Mrs. Trump with no choice but to pursue any and all legal rights and remedies available to her to recover the overwhelming financial and reputational harm that you have caused her to suffer,” the first lady’s attorney Alejandro Brito wrote in an Aug. 6 demand letter reported by Fox News.
Despite his bravado, Biden could find himself in a lot of financial trouble if he were sued. The 55-year-old has claimed in court documents that he is saddled with “significant debt in the millions of dollars range” amid sagging art and book sales and mounting legal bills.
Last month, during an interview on the same YouTube channel, Biden weighed in on the Epstein drama dogging the president.
“[It is] beyond a doubt that he [Trump] and Epstein were very close friends for a very long period of time. They spent enormous time together — they spent an enormous amount of time together around young women,” he said on the show last month.
“According to his biographer, Jeffrey Epstein introduced Melania,” he added.
Biden, like the Daily Beast and others, was citing author Michael Wolff, who has made bold and dubious claims about the president in the past that have been subject to dispute.
The president cheered his wife’s threat against Hunter Biden Thursday, insisting that he met Melania through “another person,” but not Epstein.
“Well, I said, ‘go forward.’ I have done pretty well on these lawsuits lately. And I said, ‘Go forward,'” the president told Fox News Radio host Brian Kilmeade. “Jeffrey Epstein had nothing to do with Melania and introducing, but they do that to demean. They make up stories.”
“She was very upset about it,” the president added of his wife.
Quote:His career is toast.
A DC dimwit who slung a Subway sandwich at a federal agent on the streets of the capital earlier this week has been identified as a now-former Justice Department worker.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday that Sean Charles Dunn, 37, who is facing a felony assault charge for the sandwich strike, has been fired from his DOJ role.
“If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you,” Bondi declared. “I just learned that this defendant worked at the Department of Justice — NO LONGER. Not only is he FIRED, he has been charged with a felony.”
“This is an example of the Deep State we have been up against for seven months as we work to refocus DOJ,” she added. “You will NOT work in this administration while disrespecting our government and law enforcement.”
Dunn worked as an international affairs specialist in the Justice Department’s criminal division — which handles cases of fugitives abroad and helps foreign countries on extradition matters with their own fugitives, according to the DOJ.
Dunn appeared to have been similar to a paralegal — assisting attorneys in handling a “large volume of cases, including the litigation of those matters,” according to the DOJ’s job listing for the position.
He does not appear to be an attorney as his name isn’t listed on the DC bar’s website.
An attorney for the suspect did not immediately respond to requests for comment and attempts to contact Dunn directly were unsuccessful.
Dunn was allegedly caught on camera berating a group of federal officers as “fascists” before lobbing his deli sandwich and hitting a US Customs and Border Protection agent in the chest.
Quote:U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro on Tuesday announced an indictment in Washington, D.C., accusing Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier and Bazile Richardson, a naturalized U.S. citizen, of conspiring to send U.S. funds to finance Chérizier’s Haitian gang.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Chérizier is a fugitive and is believed to be in Haiti.
His co-defendant, Richardson, who also goes by “Fredo,” “Fred Lion,” “Leo Danger,” and “Lepe Blode,” was arrested in Pasadena, Texas on July 23.
Pirro said Tuesday that Chérizier is a gang leader who orchestrated and committed various acts of violence against Haitians.
In 2020, the U.S. sanctioned Chérizier under the Magnitsky Act for his alleged human rights violations. His indictment makes it the first of its kind for an individual sanctioned under the international Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, Pirro added.
Richardson and Chérizier grew up together in Haiti, though the former later became a naturalized U.S. citizen and was living in North Carolina.
Richardson was indicted for allegedly sending money to Chérizier, knowing that he had been sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act.
“I want to let the public know that anyone who was giving money to Chérizier, also known as Barbecue, because of his violent acts in his home country, cannot say ‘I didn’t know. I didn’t know that he was sanctioned by the U.S government,’” Pirro said. “They will be prosecuted, and we will find them because they are supporting an individual who was committing human rights abuses. And we will not look the other way.”
The State Department’s Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program announced Tuesday that it is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Chérizier. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is encouraged to contact the State Department.
Quote:A federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected an effort by a group of labor unions to block President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from accessing potentially sensitive U.S. user data from several government agencies.
Judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to vacate a lower court’s preliminary injunction that blocked DOGE from accessing certain user data, citing concerns that DOGE’s access would violate federal privacy laws.
The ruling is a near-term win for the Trump administration, allowing DOGE to access sensitive user information compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, Treasury Department, and Office of Personnel Management.
Unions had sued to block the access earlier this year, citing privacy concerns.
The 2-1 appeals court ruling vacates the lower court's preliminary injunction, handed down by U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardma, and remands it back to the lower court to be heard on its merits.
The computerized data could include access to Social Security numbers and immigration and citizenship status. The case will continue to be litigated on the merits, but for now it is a legal victory for the Trump administration.
Quote:A controversial Princeton professor with strong ties to the Iranian regime has quietly stepped down from the Ivy League school, following a campaign from dissidents to remove him.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a Middle East security and nuclear policy specialist, retired from his position after 15 years as the head of the school’s Program on Science and Global Security on June 1, according to an announcement listing retiring employees on Princeton’s website.
The professor is controversial for being heavily involved in Iran’s chemical and nuclear programs beginning in 2004, long before the country was known to have been building up its nuclear arsenal, according to German journalist Bruno Schirra.
The move comes amid the news Princeton could lose more than $200 million in grants from the Trump administration for not tackling antisemitism on campus, The Post has learned.
Iranian opposition activists as well as Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a Princeton alumnus, had long urged the school to fire Mousavian.
“It’s a victory, but one has to wonder if he’s staying behind the scenes somehow,” said Lawdan Bazargan, a former political prisoner in Iran, a human rights activist and member of the US-based Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists.
The group has waged a two-year campaign to get the university to ditch Mousavian.
“We exposed the truth,” the group said in a press release last week. “Mousavian is not a neutral scholar but a former ambassador of the [Islamic Republic of Iran] who defended the fatwas to kill author Salman Rushdie.”
Shirin Ebadi, a former Iranian judge who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, has also previously accused Mousavian of supporting the fatwa.
Before being hired by Princeton in 2009, Mousavian had also worked as a diplomat and editor of the Tehran Times, the English-language newspaper which is a mouthpiece for the regime.
Mousavian was also Iran’s ambassador to Germany in 1992 when four dissidents were murdered in the back of a restaurant in Berlin.
The group of dissidents which campaigned to get him fired from Princeton has previously alleged when Mousavian was ambassador to Germany, 23 Iranians were killed in Europe for being enemies of the mullahs.
In 1997, a German court concluded that the Iranian leadership, including the foreign ministry, masterminded the murders and that the headquarters for plotting them was the Iranian embassy, but did not name Mousavian.
During the trial, German newspaper Tagesspiegel reported a former Iranian spy, Abolghasem Mesbahi, said under oath, “Mousavian was involved in most of the crimes that took place in Europe.
Quote:Department of Justice Special Attorney Ed Martin was spotted in Brooklyn Friday inspecting Tish James’ multi-family residential property that is at the center of a federal mortgage fraud investigation.
Martin, conspicuous in a beige trench coat, visited the Clinton Hill brownstone a week after being appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to run parallel mortgage fraud probes into the New York attorney general and her fellow Trump-deranged Democrat, California Sen. Adam Schiff.
Grand juries in Virginia and Maryland are currently weighing criminal indictments for James and Schiff respectively over allegations they falsified property records to secure favorable loan terms.
James’ Brooklyn property at 296 Lafayette Avenue is classified as a five-unit dwelling, but James is alleged to have misrepresented the building on mortgage applications, building permits, and filings for government assistance as having only four units.
The alleged misclassification allowed her to qualify for loans with better interest rates and lower down payments through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are only available for properties with four or fewer residential units.
At the time Martin was inspecting the property on Friday afternoon, there was one doorbell visible at the main entrance and an additional four door bells at a side entrance, with weathered labels signifying “1 Floor,” “2 Floor,” “3A,” and “3B.”
A neighbor confronted Martin and an unidentified colleague as they were standing out the front of the property and asked them what they were doing.
“Tell me why you’re here,” said the middle aged blonde in navy gym shorts and black tank top.
“We know who lives here . . . You’re not here about the houses. You’re here because of who lives here. It’s my neighborhood. It’s my block. I have a right to know what you guys are doing.”
Martin replied: “I’m just happy to be on a block looking at houses . . . I’m just looking at houses, interesting houses. It’s an important house.”
UKRAINE WAR
Quote:Moscow troops made one of their most dramatic advancements of the year Tuesday when they pushed deeper into the Donetsk region of Ukraine — just three days before President Trump is set to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s invasion forces marched some six miles past the frontlines in Donetsk to encircle the towns of Kostyantynivka, Dobropillia and Pokrovsk, advancing Moscow’s goal of taking full control of the region, according to Ukraine’s authoritative DeepState war map.
“The situation is quite chaotic, as the enemy, having found gaps in the defense, is infiltrating deeper, trying to quickly consolidate and accumulate forces for further advancement,” DeepState said in an update.
Donetsk has seen some of the most intense fighting of the war, which is in its third year, with Moscow reportedly demanding full control of the region as part of the upcoming peace talks with Trump.
The latest advancement was centered on the coal mining town of Dobropillia, which lies just north of Pokrovsk, a key city Russia has been targeting for months.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top military commander, said Russia was using sheer numbers to overwhelm his forces along the frontlines to make small gains in the region, local Interfax-Ukraine reported.
The Russian forces have recently made 35 attempts to push back Kyiv’s defenses before making the six-mile gain, Andriy Kovalov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian army, told the local outlet.
Syrskyi has since ordered a new wave of reinforcements to the frontlines to end Moscow’s advancements.
Quote:Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that it controls as part of a ceasefire deal, a proposal the leader categorically rejected.
Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine would not withdraw from territories it controls, saying that would be unconstitutional and would serve only as a springboard for a future Russian invasion.
He said diplomatic discussions led by the US focusing on ending the war have not touched on security guarantees for Ukraine to prevent future Russian aggression and that meeting formats currently being discussed do not include Europe’s participation, both key demands of Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Russian forces on the ground have been closing in on a key territorial grab around the city of Pokrovsk.
Zelensky said the necessity of territorial concessions was conveyed to him by US officials ahead of a summit Friday between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and in further meetings at the level of national security officials.
It remained unclear whether Ukraine would take part in the Friday summit. European Union leaders also have been sidelined from the meeting, and they appealed to Trump on Tuesday to protect their interests.
Zelensky says Ukraine will not withdraw from the Donbas
Zelensky said Putin wants the remaining 9,000 square kilometers (3,500 square miles) of Donetsk under Kyiv’s control, where the war’s toughest battles are grinding on, as part of a ceasefire plan, in a press briefing on Tuesday in Kyiv.
Doing so would hand Russia almost the entirety of the Donbas, a region comprising Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland that Putin has long coveted.
Zelensky learned of Russia’s position after holding a call with Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff, after the latter’s bilateral meeting with Putin. Witkoff told Zelensky that Russia was ready to end the war and that there should be territorial concessions from both sides. Some European partners were also part of the call.
“And that, probably, Putin wants us to leave Donbas. That is, it didn’t sound like America wants us to leave,” he said, recounting the call.
Zelensky reiterated that withdrawing from Ukraine-controlled territory was out of the question, especially as the question of security guarantees for Ukraine, were not being discussed.
“We will not leave Donbas. We cannot do this. Everyone forgets the first part – our territories are illegally occupied,” Zelensky told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday. “Donbas for the Russians is a springboard for a future new offensive.”
Zelensky said this is what occurred in 2014 when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula.
Quote:Ukraine is open to a US-backed aerial cease-fire with Russia, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky has said — as President Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin prepare to meet for high-stakes talks in Alaska.
“Ukraine is ready to discuss it, is ready to consider this scenario, and sees it as the initial stage for reaching realistic negotiating positions,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera published Tuesday.
However, Podolyak said Putin is unlikely to cooperate.
“Russia is unlikely to forgo the use of strategic aviation and the massive deployment of drones,” he warned. “Aerial bombardments are a key tool with which Moscow exerts psychological pressure on the country and influences our position.”
He also cast doubt on hopes for Friday’s summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska, where the pair will discuss the bloody three-year conflict.
“Putin is not ready for realistic negotiations. His main task at this stage is to stall and mislead the US administration,” Podlyak warned.
He also called for the greater use of sanctions to step up pressure on Putin’s regime alongside further military support for Kyiv.
“Without the use of coercive instruments, such as economic sanctions, and without a military defeat, nothing will happen. The two go hand in hand,” he said.
Discussions about a mutual halt on aerial strikes have been part of negotiations since the start of the war, but have never been fulfilled.
Quote:Thousands of children across Ukraine have been stuck behind computer screens for more than five years as Russia’s constant bombings have left them unsafe to leave COVID-era online schools the rest of the world discarded years ago.
Moscow routinely targets civilian infrastructure all over Ukraine, making even the most basic activities an intolerable risk.
Fourth-grader Kyrylo has only attended classes in person for three months out of his entire life. The little boy started kindergarten in 2020, as the pandemic forced students across the world into virtual homeschooling.
When schools reopened in the fall of 2021, Kyrylo was delighted to meet friends in first grade and learn critical social skills — but Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine the following February, forcing kids back online.
“It’s very scary, because I have to think about my son’s life. He’s only 10 years old and I cannot just let him go and hang out outside on his own,” his mother, Vlada, a part-time tram driver, told The Post. (The parents who agreed to be interviewed asked to be identified by first names only to protect their children from Russian targeting.)
“We struggle with school classes because they are conducted online and teachers are not able to reach all of them. I have to re-teach him what he’s learned.”
Kyrylo has one real friend — the son of his next-door neighbor. It’s hard to meet other children his age when he has to stay home all day before joining his mother on her nightly route so they can be assured of making it to a shelter if and when air raid alarms go off.
“It’s like never-ending COVID times,” Vlada said. “But this time, with bombs.”
As in the US, most schools in Ukraine are not equipped with bomb shelters. That means parents often have to make steep sacrifices to ensure their kids get the educations they need, as safely as possible.
Some try to scrape together enough funds to send their children to expensive private schools, which do have shelters.
“I have to work long hours to give him a proper education now,” said Kharkiv resident Slava, a pharmacist, of her 10-year-old son.
“The first year [of the war], he was alone online and it was difficult, so now I decided I want to give him something — a real, normal education.”
Quote:President Trump assured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on a Wednesday call that his main goal for Friday’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is to push for a cease-fire — but he is “not very optimistic” the dictator will budge, a US source familiar with the discussion told The Post.
“If Putin does not agree to [a] cease-fire, then Trump [is] likely to hit them [Russia] with sanctions,” the source said.
Hours earlier, Zelensky told reporters in Berlin that he, Trump and other European leaders “demonstrated one voice, one desire, and one principle” ahead of the US-Russia summit in Anchorage, Alaska.
“There should be a cease-fire, there should be security guarantees. President Trump said he supports this and spoke about America’s readiness to take part,” the 47-year-old said in laying out his position.
An American source told The Post that the conversation had gone “mostly well,” while Trump himself gave the call a perfect score.
“We had a very good call,” the president told reporters at the Kennedy Center. “I would rate it a 10.”
Notably, the American president promised the European leaders that he would not discuss the status of Ukrainian territory with Putin, with a source confirming it was ultimately “up to Ukraine to decide if and what territorial concessions to make.”
Before any negotiations on a final deal take place, the Western leaders agreed, a cease-fire must be observed — and Ukraine must be included once peace talks begin.
Trump, 79, also said a second meeting with Putin would take place with Zelensky present — but only if Friday’s sitdown aimed at “setting the table” for a future meeting went well.
“If the first one goes OK, we’ll have a quick second one,” Trump told reporters. “I would like to do it almost immediately, and we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself, if they’d like to have me there.”
If Trump’s skepticism about Putin’s willlingness to play ball is proven true, he and the European leaders agreed that they would “hit Russia with more pressure and sanctions,” the source said.
Ukraine has repeatedly pushed for security guarantees — such as NATO membership or nuclear weapons — but both current and former US administrations have reacted cooly to those ambitions.
Quote:British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to London on Thursday, a day before a critical US-Russia summit in Alaska.
Zelensky’s trip to the British capital comes a day after he took part in virtual meetings from Berlin with US President Donald Trump and the leaders of several European countries.
Those leaders said Trump had assured them he would make a priority of trying to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Anchorage.
Both Zelensky and the Europeans have worried the bilateral US-Russia summit would leave them and their interests sidelined, and that any conclusions reached could favor Moscow and leave Ukraine and Europe’s future security in jeopardy with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine now in its fourth year.
Yet some of those leaders, like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, praised Wednesday’s video conference with Trump as constructive. Speaking after the meetings to reporters, Trump warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin does not agree to stop the war against Ukraine after Friday’s meeting.
Territorial integrity
Starmer on Wednesday said the Alaska summit would be “hugely important,” and could be a “viable” path to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
But he also alluded to European concerns that Trump may strike a deal that forces Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, and warned that Western allies must be prepared to step up pressure on Russia if necessary.
During a call Wednesday among leaders of countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — Starmer stressed that any deal reached on bringing the fighting to an end must protect the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
Quote:Russia appeared to be preparing to test its new nuclear-armed cruise missile just days before leader Vladimir Putin is expected to meet with President Trump on Friday.
Experts with the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and CNA research and analysis organization found evidence that Russia was readying to test its SSC-X-9 Skyfall nuclear-powered cruise missile.
Jeffrey Lewis, of the MIIS, and Decker Eveleth, of CNA, said activity had skyrocketed at Russia’s Pankovo test site on the Barents Sea archipelago, including increases in personnel and equipment and ships and aircraft associated with earlier tests of the nuclear weapon.
“We can see all of the activity at the test site, which is both huge amounts of supplies coming in to support operations and movement at the place where they actually launch the missile,” Lewis said.
“It’s full steam ahead,” he said of the pace of test preparations.
Lewis and Eveleth, who monitored the activity at the Pankovo test site using Planet Labs commercial satellites, said the images showed stacks of shipping containers, equipment, and personnel arriving at the test site since late July.
Lewis also noted the presence of at least five ships associated with previous tests, with a sixth ship due to arrive next Tuesday, according to ship-tracking website VesselFinder.com.
A separate Western security source confirmed with Reuters that Russia was preparing a cruise missile test at the site.
A series of notices on the US Federal Aviation Administration’s Defense Internet NOTAM Service issued by Russia also showed a possible launch window between Aug. 9 and 22.
Quote:Russian President Vladimir Putin lauded the Trump administration’s “energetic” and “sincere” efforts to end the war in Ukraine — and suggested the US and Russia could reach a deal on nuclear arms control at their summit in Alaska on Friday.
Putin appeared optimistic that forthcoming meetings in Anchorage between Moscow and Washington could “create long-term conditions for peace between our countries, as well as in Europe, and in the world as a whole,” he told senior officials during a briefing on Thursday.
“The current American administration… is making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,” Putin said, according to CNN.
A possible peace deal is possible in the “next stages” of negotiations if the US and Russia can “reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons,” the 72-year-old said, referring to nuclear arms.
The US and Russia signed a pact in 2011, known as New START, capping strategic nuclear weapons deployments. The deal expires on February 5, 2026.
New START has been tested by Russia’s war in Ukraine and has been on life support since Putin announced Russia would no longer comply with its requirements in February.
The treaty limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The pact also called for mutual site inspections, which were paused during COVID-19 in 2020 and have not resumed.
The Kremlin also indicated they want to bring other topics to the table during Friday’s meeting — including economic cooperation — alongside conversations about the war on Ukraine.
Quote:A huge explosion ripped through a gunpowder factory in Russia on Friday as fighting also continued in Ukraine ahead of a bombshell summit between Presidents Putin and Trump in Alaska.
Five people were killed and at least 20 were injured, 10 of them seriously, in the blast that sparked a huge fire at the Elastik gunpowder plant near the city of Ryazan, just over 100 miles southeast of Moscow.
More bodies are feared trapped under the rubble, local reports said.
The blast was not immediately blamed on Ukraine, with local media noting an earlier explosion at the same factory killed 17 people in 2021.
However, it came as Ukraine forces hit a Russian oil refinery in Samara Oblast with a drone overnight, and also targeted an enemy ship loaded with Iranian-supplied weapons in the port of Olya on the Caspian Sea.
The attacks came even as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, encouraged Trump to get a cease-fire deal from Putin when they meet in Alaska on Friday.
The death toll at the Elastik factory is expected to rise, with more bodies trapped under the rubble where more than 100 workers were evacuated, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing Russian media reports that said at least 100 people had been evacuated.
Dramatic video shows an enormous plume of black smoke and huge flames leaping into the sky, visible from miles around.
No official cause for the blast has been given. But Russian media has blamed possible safety violations at the plant where 17 people were killed in a 2021 blast.
Meanwhile, Russia may be close to a new breakthrough on the frontlines in Ukraine, with its forces encircling the key city of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, according to open-source online mapping site DeepState.
Quote:Russia’s foreign minister arrived in Alaska for Friday’s high-stakes US summit wearing a Soviet Union sweatshirt — an apparent jab reminding the world of the Kremlin’s ultimate goal to reassemble the Communist state.
Sergei Lavrov was seen wearing a gray sweatshirt emblazoned with “CCCP” — the Russian letters for USSR — that was partly covered by a black puffer vest as he entered the site of the talks in Anchorage.
Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022 as part of his personal ambition to re-form the Soviet Union, the collapse of which he has called “the greatest geopolitical disaster of the century.”
Lavrov’s choice of sweater taunted the formerly Soviet Ukraine, a democratic country that has been independent since the USSR’s dissolution in 1991.
The foreign minister told reporters in Alaska that he wasn’t making “any predictions” about the outcome of the talks between Presidents Trump and Putin.
“We have solid arguments, we have our own clear and comprehensible position,” he said. “We will present it here.”
Further symbolism was on display during a special flight from Moscow to Anchorage, where Russian journalists were served Chicken Kyiv, chief Putin propagandist and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan posted to social media.
It was unclear if the choice of meal — which is standard fare on Russian airlines because it can be easily frozen and reheated — was intentional.
At Russia’s request, Ukrainian officials were not invited to Friday morning’s summit at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, northeast of downtown Anchorage.
Quote:Illia, a two-year-old Ukrainian boy, was kidnapped by a high-ranking Russian officer for his “good looks” — only to be abandoned when his underlying health issues were uncovered.
He was never seen again.
The innocent toddler is one of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia during the war that Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, is fiercely fighting for.
Now, as a possible peace deal between Ukraine and Russia gains momentum, Zelenska wants the return of her country’s missing children to be a priority, she told The Post in an exclusive interview from Kyiv Thursday.
Ukraine has struggled to locate and repatriate the children kidnapped by Russian forces since the beginning of its full-scale invasion in 2022 — many of whom were taken from schools, orphanages, or their families during the chaos of occupation.
Ukrainian officials say at least 19,500 children remain unaccounted for, but the actual number could be far higher.
The Russian government has previously claimed far higher numbers. In 2023, Russian Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova cited 744,000 Ukrainian children as having been moved to Russia —before both she and President Vladimir Putin were indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes related to these deportations.
“For all Ukrainians, this is one of the most heartbreaking consequences of this war,” Zelenska said. “We could not protect their rights when the Russians took them — without consent, without records, without any transparency.”
Thousands of children were removed during what the Kremlin called “evacuation” procedures — but were actually forced deportations.
In some cases, entire boarding schools were emptied and the children loaded onto buses, disappearing without a trace.
Ukrainian social services scrambled to locate them, but with much of the occupied territory under Russian control, answers have been scarce.
“In the first weeks of the invasion, civilians couldn’t evacuate freely,” Zelenska said. “There were no green corridors. Anyone who tried to leave towards Ukrainian-controlled areas risked being shot, even families with children. The only direction open was towards Russia.”
Many children were also separated from their parents during so-called “filtration” procedures at controversial checkpoints where fleeing civilians were subjected to interrogations, phone checks, and even body inspections for pro-Ukrainian tattoos.
Quote:President Trump on Friday described it as “very nice” that former rival Hillary Clinton promised to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize if he’s able to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without Kyiv being forced to give up territory.
“Well, uh, that was … very nice,” Trump told Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier, after a prolonged pause.
“I may have to start liking her again,” the president added of the former first lady, secretary of state and two-time defeated presidential candidate, as he traveled aboard Air Force One for a high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Clinton’s surprising offer to nominate her 2016 presidential election opponent for the illustrious prize came during an interview with the “Raging Moderates” podcast released Friday.
“Honestly, if he could bring about the end to this terrible war, if he could end it without putting Ukraine in a position where it had to concede its territory to the aggressor, could really stand up to Putin — something we haven’t seen, but maybe this is the opportunity — if President Trump were the architect of that, I’d nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize,” she told podcast host Jessica Tarlov.
“Because my goal here is to not allow capitulation to Putin,” Clinton added.
Trump has said he is confident Putin is looking to strike a deal to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II, putting the chance of failure at just 25%.
The president has already been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his efforts in securing a cease-fire between Israel and Iran.
The governments of Pakistan and Cambodia also indicated they have nominated Trump for the prize, for the president’s role in settling disputes with India and Thailand, respectively.
Trump’s role in negotiating a peace framework between Azerbaijan and Armenia similarly resulted in the leaders of both nations expressing support for Trump winning the prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is expected to announce the peace prize winner on Oct. 10.
Quote:Russian reporters are whining about having to sleep on cots and being served old tuna for breakfast while covering the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska — but their own country may actually be to blame.
The Kremlin journalists griped that they’ve had to rough it on portable beds with no sheets set up at the Alaska Airlines Center sports arena in Anchorage, where they were hardly able to make phone calls.
They — gasp — even had to get by without bottled water.
“After being assigned for [Thursday] night to what appeared to be a disaster evacuation zone, Russian journalists were being treated to breakfast of tuna mayo left out overnight, some chips, and an unlimited supply of water (from a drinking fountain),’’ wrote an irked Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of the Russian state-run outlet RT.
But critics said Russia is at least partly to blame for what its scribes consider practically Third World conditions.
The country flew roughly 50 of its own “reporters” over to supposedly cover the event, and it’s lucky so many of them got into the US at all, considering the nation’s intelligence services regularly send spies to work as “journalists,’’ a security source told The Post.
There wasn’t much time to vet them or get enough accommodations for quickly planned summit, the source noted.
Many US reporters didn’t get hotel rooms in the small capital city of roughly 290,000, either.
On Friday, footage showed members of the Russian media receiving stepped-up food including breakfast sandwiches, packaged snacks and beverages at the arena, which hosts basketball games on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus.
“Americans finally provide journalists with proper food,” declared the X account Alaska Summit News First.
But in some corners, the Russian journos are in no position to complain about the US.
“Sanctions mean roaming doesn’t really work, so they are stuck on WiFi, and Russia blocked most calls on WhatsApp and telegram the other day,’’ wrote Financial Times’ Moscow Bureau Chief Max Seddon on X.
Another X user wrote, “So, better treatment than Ukrainians in the occupied territories.
“You have access to running water, something people in occupied Donetsk don’t have.
MIDDLE EAST & GUATEMALA
Quote:The Museum of the Holocaust—Museo del Holocausto in Guatemala City was vandalized this week by pro-Palestinian activists, in a rare incident of antisemitism in the Central American country, the museum’s director said on Thursday.
The vandals spray-painted “Gaza Viva” on the museum’s walls in Guatemala City on Sunday night, and affixed some 18 posters referencing the Gaza Strip.
“With all the problems happening in far-away Guatemala with criminal gangs, it is disturbing how a small group of people is using the excuse of the war in Gaza to target the Jews,” Marco Gonzalez, director of the museum, told JNS on Thursday.
The vandalism took place the night after about two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters held a small demonstration in Guatemala City, he said.
Security cameras caught the images of three vandals just before midnight, the museum director said. No arrests have been made in the case.
The museum, which opened in 2016 and is operated by a Paris-based Christian organization, is the only Holocaust museum in Central America.
“We stand firm in the face of the international antisemitism that attacked our monument; with the Jewish people and their friends, we say: No to antisemitism disguised as defense of the Palestinians,” said Father Patrick Desbois, founder of the Holocaust research organization Yahad-In Unum, which runs the Museo del Holocausto. “We will not stop teaching the Holocaust to new generations, so that tomorrow Guatemala will be free of hatred and antisemitism.”
Last year, nearly 20,000 people visited the museum.
The strongly pro-Israel Guatemala, whose 18 million residents are split between Catholics and evangelicals, includes Holocaust education in its school curriculum.
Guatemala’s friendship with Israel dates back to the vote by the United Nations General Assembly to create a Jewish state in 1947, when it became the first country in Latin America to recognize the newly-reestablished Israel. It was also the second country to move its embassy to Jerusalem after the United States did so in 2018 during the first administration of President Donald Trump.
Quote:A coin minted by Jewish rebels just before the destruction of the Second Temple – an event Jesus predicted in the Gospels – has been unearthed in Jerusalem.
The 2,000-year-old artifact was found at the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, located in the Old City and just a stone’s throw away from the Temple Mount.
The discovery was announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on July 31, just days before Tisha B’Av – the Jewish day of mourning that marks the Romans’ destruction of the Temple, near where the coin was found.
“The obverse side of the coin carries the inscription in ancient Hebrew script: ‘For the Redemption of Zion’ – expressing the heartfelt desire of Jerusalem‘s Jews, toward the end of the revolt,” the IAA noted.
The bronze coin was minted by ancient Jews between 69 and 70 A.D. The IAA said it was found near the southwest corner of the Temple Mount.
The coin was discovered by Yaniv David Levy, a coin specialist with the IAA, who described its state of preservation as “quite good.”
“On its reverse is a lulav, a palm frond used in the Sukkot festival ritual,” Levy said.
“Next to it are two etrogs, the citron used in that same ritual.”
He noted, “The [Year Four] inscription denotes the number of years since the outbreak of the rebellion and allows us to accurately date the coin to the period between the Hebrew month of Nissan (March-April) of the year 69 CE, and the month of Adar (February-March) of the year 70 CE.”
Speaking about her experience during the excavation, archaeologist Esther Rakow-Mellet told the IAA she had a feeling it was an unusual discovery.
“From the looks of it, [we thought] it might be a rare coin,” Rakow-Mellet recalled.
“We waited anxiously for several days until it came back from cleaning, and it turned out that it was a greeting from the Jewish rebels in Year Four of the Great Revolt.”
She also noted the striking timing of the discovery, just days before Tisha B’Av.
“Two thousand years after the minting of this coin … [we found] such a moving testimony to that great destruction, and I think there is nothing more symbolic,” said Rakow-Mellet.
The IAA noted that Year Four coins are “relatively rare,” since they were minted toward the end of the revolt when rebels had reduced production capabilities.
Excavation director Yuval Baruch said the coin’s inscription “indicates a profound change of identity and mindset, and perhaps also reflects the desperate situation of the rebel forces.”
“It would seem that in the rebellion’s fourth year, the mood of the rebels now besieged in Jerusalem changed from euphoria and anticipation of freedom at hand, to a dispirited mood and a yearning for redemption,” the archaeologist observed.
The coin will be put on display at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel in Jerusalem.
The recent discovery is one of many archaeological finds made in Jerusalem this year: an ancient garden was recently found at the holiest site in Christianity, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
In the Room of the Last Supper, located on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, centuries-old inscriptions have also recently resurfaced.
Quote:The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency visited Qatar on Thursday to revive the cease-fire and hostage exchange talks with Hamas, officials said.
David Barnea met with Qatari Prime Minister Abdulrahman al-Thani in hopes of restarting the peace talks, which were left frozen after Israel and the US exited Doha and accused Hamas of not negotiating in good faith, two officials with the Jewish state told Reuters.
Barnea’s trip comes as Hamas reportedly sent its own negotiation team to Cairo to try and revive the peace talks, with the terror group claiming it was open to ceding its power in Gaza, but not its weapons.
Hopes for a diplomatic end to the war, which has raged on for more than 21 months, were seemingly dashed last month after the US and Israel pulled out of the negotiating table, claiming Hamas showed “a lack of desire to reach a cease-fire in Gaza.”
The tension at the negotiating table stemmed from Hamas’ refusal to give up its hold over the Gaza Strip and demilitarize, with Israel also rejecting any deal that would establish the groundwork for a full military withdrawal and permanent peace.
With the talks dead in the water, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans last week for a full military takeover of Gaza City, with the aim of pressuring the terror group to come back to the negotiating table.
Hamas officials did just that on Thursday, with one official telling Reuters that the terrorist group was ready to relinquish governance on Gaza to a non-partisan committee.
Hamas, which bills itself as a resistance group, however, said it would not demilitarize until a Palestinian state is formally established.
Netanyahu has long rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, claiming that recognizing one would only reward Hamas and the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, where the militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others.
Quote:The Israel Defense Forces killed Nasser Musa, a senior operative in Hamas’s Rafah Brigade who headed the terrorist group’s Military Control Department, last week in a strike near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, the military announced on Friday.
Musa, killed on Aug. 9, was responsible for the operational readiness and training of the Rafah Brigade, which carried out attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians during the war.
He was a close associate of Rafah Brigade commander Mohammad Sabaneh, who was killed in May 2025. He also held multiple positions within the brigade, including in military intelligence and the observation network.
“Musa’s elimination further degrades the Rafah Brigade’s operational capabilities and Hamas terrorists’ abilities,” said the IDF.
Meanwhile, the IDF continues operations in Khan Yunis. On Thursday, it struck a structure used by terrorist groups to store rockets intended for attacks on Israeli targets. Troops also located and dismantled additional terrorist infrastructure and neutralized active terrorist cells.
In northern Gaza, IDF soldiers killed terrorists and demolished tunnel shafts, and “continue to defend the civilians of the communities near the Strip,” the military added.
Earlier this week, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir confirmed a new phase in the war against Hamas, focused on securing operational control of Gaza City.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will not occupy the enclave, saying the expansion of the war is aimed at destroying Hamas and freeing the local population from its regime of terror.
On Thursday night, he outlined conditions for ending the fighting, including the full disarmament of Hamas; the return of all 49 remaining hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023 and of the remains of Lt. Hadar Goldin, taken in 2014; the demilitarization of the entire Strip; security control of Gaza by the IDF; and establishing “an alternative civilian administration” in the enclave.
How Hamas turned kids into terrorists with TV show featuring jihadi mouse, bloodthirsty bunny
Quote:American kids may have grown up with Mr. Rogers telling them, “You are special just the way you are,” but for a child in Gaza there was Farfour—a plushy, genocidal TV mouse screaming “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
Farfour, a costumed Mickey Mouse knockoff, was co-host of a kid’s program called “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” which aired on Hamas-affiliated television station Al-Aqsa TV from April 2007 to October 2009.
For anyone wondering how the ideologically-crazed fanatical fighters of Hamas came to be, the show offers some answers.
Billed as educational programming to teach Islamic values to schoolchildren — much like a “Sesame Street” or “Barney & Friends” for the Middle East — “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” was a colorful, sing-song blood orgy celebrating Jew hatred and martyrdom.
The kids who grew up watching it are now fighting age men — like those who carried out the October 7 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis and abducted 251 hostages.
On the show, Farfour promised the kids of Gaza that together they’d oversee Islamic world domination and liberate Jerusalem from the “murderers.” He mimicked grenade-throwing and shooting an AK-47.
Mia Bloom, professor of communication and Middle East studies at Georgia State University, remembers “Tomorrow’s Pioneers” well from her research into terror tactics.
“It’s a constant stream of horrific propaganda that is almost impossible for a child to break out of. And so the kids grow up thinking that every Israeli should be killed because every Israeli is bad and evil,” she told the Post.
The show’s co-host, Gaza child star Saraa Barhoum — around 10 years old when the show first aired and the daughter of a university professor mother and a Hamas spokesman father — said in a 2007 interview she wanted to be either a doctor or a martyr when she grew up.
She also launched a singing career, recording pop songs with lyrics like, “raise your sail for the sailors, and let your lighthouse illuminate the sea of blood.”
“There’s a concept in criminology called a deviant peer. If I’m a recruiter—if I’m trying to get kids—I’m not going to use a 75-year-old man. I’m going to use a cool kid who’s maybe a few years older,” Bloom says.
“Unfortunately, it’s a common thing that happens within the child abuse space.”
Disney, notorious for swooping in on copyright infringement, was aware of Farfour’s Mickey Mouse likeness but chose to remain silent. They didn’t have to for long: the network murdered Farfour on air during the first season. In the scene, the terror Mouse is being interrogated by IDF soldiers who beat him to death after he refuses to hand over documents.
“[Hamas’s] argument would be: ‘These kids are already traumatized — this kid doesn’t have a house, lost a sibling — the trauma is already there and the trauma is all around them.’
“By traumatizing the children through the ‘Pioneers’ show, Hamas basically controlled the narrative and they could direct the trauma, instead of having this vague generalized trauma across society,” Bloom, author of the book “Small Arms: Children and Terrorism” said.
On the show, Farfour was replaced by a bloodthirsty bumblebee with a squeaky voice named Nahoul, who preached to the kiddos: “We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews,” referring to the fictional town where the characters lived, and “revenge upon the enemies of God, the murderers of the prophets.”
In season two, Nahoul gets sick. The Israeli authorities won’t issue him a travel permit to receive medical treatment in Egypt and he dies. Nahoul is replaced by his rabbit brother, Assoud, a mangy Bugs Bunny knockoff, who tells the tykes at home in one episode: “A rabbit is a term for a bad person and coward. And I, Assoud, will finish off the Jews and eat them.”
In another episode Assoud is tempted by Satan to steal money from his father and sentenced to have his hand cut off, “as the Prophet Mohammed commanded.” Assoud later dies in an Israeli strike and is replaced by a bear.
In another episode, children were invited into the studio to tell the hosts of their wish to die as martyrs, and then sing a song about it.
“This kind of layered trauma that you’re deliberately exposing young Palestinian children to was not just a form of child abuse, but a long-term manipulation,” Bloom says.
“It relates to October 7th. To have those resources and instead of making things better, you’ve just made things so much worse.”
While little information is publicly known about the estimated 3,000 Hamas fighters who conducted the Oct. 7 slaughter, ages 16-35 are considered “fighting age” for men—meaning many of those combatants grew up watching their favorite plushy woodland creatures get executed by Jews on afterschool television.
“It’s not just the ‘Pioneers’ TV show. It was amplified and reinforced by the textbooks that the children would read in school that demonized Jews and basically referred to Jews as apes and pigs and other dirty animals,” Bloom says.
A 2008 analysis of Palestinian schoolbooks found a passage comparing Jews to “invading snakes.” In popular media, a late 1990s Palestinian magazine article explained that Jews are the actual sons of apes and, due to the shame felt by this, the “Jewish ape Darwin” invented the theory of evolution and applied it to all humans.
Bloom, who has studied genocide, extremist movements, and child soldiers across the world, says it reminds her of the Taliban and ISIS—both of whom held public beheadings and required children of the community to attend.
“It’s not exactly the same because killing Farfour was fake. But it’s this idea of exposing children to obscene levels of violence. And it creates a preparedness to justify violence and to choose violence over other options.”
INTERNATIONAL
Quote:President Trump signed an executive order on Monday extending a tariff truce with China by another 90 days – just hours before levies on Chinese goods were due to snap back to triple-digit rates.
“I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days. All other elements of the Agreement will remain the same,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The order prevents tariffs on imports from China – currently subject to a 30% duty – from sky-rocketing to 145%.
Similarly, China’s 10% tariff on US goods – which was set to climb to 125% just after midnight Tuesday – will remain in place.
Washington and Beijing struck a deal in May to pause their raging trade war for 90 days, as negotiations on a long term trading agreement continued.
Earlier Monday, Trump was noncommittal when asked if he would extend the tariff truce, but noted that negotiations were going “quite nicely.”
“We’ll see what happens,” the president told reporters. “They’ve been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with President Xi [Jinping] and myself.”
The initial truce was agreed to after talks in Geneva, Switzerland in May – led on the US side by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
Both sides met again in Stockholm, Sweden in late July, but no agreement on a trade deal, nor extending the pause, was reached.
Trump cut preliminary trade deals with several nations, including the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and the European Union, ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline he had set for his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs to go into effect.
Quote:A British prison officer could be headed for her own cell after recently fessing up to a month-long inappropriate relationship with an inmate, according to a report.
Megan Breen, 23, made the shocking admission in a Welsh court, becoming the latest of more than a dozen UK prison workers charged with similar conduct in recent years, the Telegraph reported.
Breen initially denied the allegations before owning up to the affair, while the prisoner involved remains unnamed.
Exactly what happened between Breen and the inmate remains unclear.
But their relationship was carried out between February and May 2022, while Breen was working at two South Wales prisons — HMP Usk and HMP Prescoed.
Prescoed is a minimum security prison, according to the Telegraph, while Usk is a tighter security facility that houses the likes of sex offenders.
It also remains unclear which prison the relationship happened at.
“While acting as a public officer, namely a prison officer, willfully and without reasonable excuse or justification, [you] misconducted yourself in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder by having a relationship with a prisoner,” Breen’s charges read.
She was released on bail until her sentencing next month.
Quote:Firefighters in Spain, Portugal, and Greece continued to battle wildfires Friday on a public holiday in all three countries as persistent hot, dry conditions challenged efforts to contain the blazes.
Spain was fighting 14 major fires. Temperatures were expected to climb over the weekend.
“Today will once again be a very tough day, with an extreme risk of new fires,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X.
The national weather agency AEMET warned of extreme fire risk in most of the country, including where the largest blazes were burning in the north and west.
A heatwave, which brought temperatures exceeding 104 Fahrenheit on several days this month, was expected to last through Monday.
Fires in the Galicia region forced the closure of several highways. The high-speed rail line connecting it to Spain’s capital, Madrid, remained suspended.
The fires in Spain this year have burned 610 square miles, according to the European Union’s European Forest Fire Information System.
That is an area roughly as big as metropolitan London.
In both Spain and Portugal, it was the Feast of the Assumption, a major Catholic holiday usually marked by family gatherings and religious processions.
In Portugal, nearly 4,000 firefighters were battling seven major fires.
Authorities extended the state of alert until Sunday, amid high temperatures expected to last through the weekend.
A wildfire in Greece burned out of control for a fourth day on the island of Chios, prompting several more overnight evacuations.
Two water-dropping planes and two helicopters were operating in the north of the island in the eastern Aegean Sea, where local authorities said a lull in high winds was helping firefighters early Friday.
Quote:Indian refiners, the top importers of Russian crude oil, are searching for alternative suppliers ahead of Friday’s summit between President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer, is looking to switch up its procurement process after Trump imposed a total 50% tariff rate on New Delhi, accusing the country of effectively fueling Russia’s war machine.
Oil importers are hedging their bets that even harsher punishments are in store for anyone who purchases petroleum from Moscow once Trump meets with Putin, with India’s state processor buying large bulk quantities of non-Russian crude this week to prepare for the worst, Bloomberg reported.
Both Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. have purchased cargo from all over the world, including the US, Brazil and the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia remains one of the top exporters of oil to India, with Riyadh sending about 22.5 million barrels of crude that are expected to arrive in September, according to Bloomberg.
The full 50% tariff rate imposed by Trump is due to take effect Aug. 27, supplanting the 25% rate currently in effect.
The race to stock up comes as Indian Oil, the country’s top refiner, missed its quarterly profit estimates on Thursday, reporting revenue about $200 million below expectations.
On average, India imported about $130 billion in Russian oil per year since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to an analysis from the New York Times.
“Like any major economy, India will take all necessary measures to safeguard its national interests and economic security,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement responding to Trump’s Aug. 6 tariff announcement.
"For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
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My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
Maranatha!
The Internet might be either your friend or enemy. It just depends on whether or not she has a bad hair day.
My Original Stories (available in English and Spanish)
List of Compiled Binary Executables I have published...
HiddenChest & Roole
Give me a free copy of your completed game if you include at least 3 of my scripts!
Just some scripts I've already published on the board...
KyoGemBoost XP VX & ACE, RandomEnkounters XP, KSkillShop XP, Kolloseum States XP, KEvents XP, KScenario XP & Gosu, KyoPrizeShop XP Mangostan, Kuests XP, KyoDiscounts XP VX, ACE & MV, KChest XP VX & ACE 2016, KTelePort XP, KSkillMax XP & VX & ACE, Gem Roulette XP VX & VX Ace, KRespawnPoint XP, VX & VX Ace, GiveAway XP VX & ACE, Klearance XP VX & ACE, KUnits XP VX, ACE & Gosu 2017, KLevel XP, KRumors XP & ACE, KMonsterPals XP VX & ACE, KStatsRefill XP VX & ACE, KLotto XP VX & ACE, KItemDesc XP & VX, KPocket XP & VX, OpenChest XP VX & ACE
