News of the World
11-22-2025, 06:23 AM
USA
Quote:Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum and Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) tussled on air over a group of Democratic lawmakers, all veterans, urging U.S. military members to “refuse illegal orders” in a public service announcement released this week.
Crow was one of the lawmakers in the video, which has angered many on the right and received a lot of airtime on Fox News.
MacCallum asked Crow to pinpoint an illegal order given by Trump, and the two battled over Trump’s comment that he wanted to shoot protesters in the legs during his first term in office.
As the conversation continued, Crow blasted Trump for expanding the use of the U.S. military overseas without Congressional approval.
Crow argued, “We’ve seen more conflict and more use in the military in the first 11 months of this administration than we have in any administration. What needs to happen is they need to come to Congress, and we need to debate this. And for them to say there’s no new war, that’s exactly the problem, because only Congress can declare a war. Only Congress, according to our Constitution, has the authority to send our men and women into conflict.”
“We understand the War Powers Act. We know how it works,” MacCallum interjected as Crow hit back, “Well, apparently you don’t. No, that is not true, because you’re saying that no war exists, so it’s not a problem.”
MacCallum pushed back, “I am trying figure out specifically what your issue is—and so for members, prominent members of the United States Congress, to tell young men and women of the military that they should not abide by illegal orders and to leave it so vague and to talk about comments that have been made in the past and what they might lead to—I think could potentially be very confusing for young men or women who have committed to service, which you honorably did, and I commend you for the sacrifice that you made. Let me just show you this. This is Senator Eric Schmitt—”
Crow cut in, “I am going to respond to that.” MacCallum told him to “go ahead’ and he added:
Military service is tough. It’s really tough. We send our men and women into very difficult, very sometimes untenable situations. I know that. I’ve been in those situations. That’s why moral clarity, that’s why reminding people about what their obligations are, that’s why abiding by the law and providing guidance and training them in advance is important.
You can never wait until there’s a problem to train people and prepare them for that. It’s really, really important that we set the conditions right now to make sure that people understand their constitutional obligations. And we are only talking about unlawful orders versus lawful orders. That is the distinction.
MacCallum replied, “You just haven’t outlined any specific unlawful order.” She added:
This is Senator Eric Schmitt that he released on X. This is what he said: “At the end of the day”—he’s speaking about the members of Congress who did this video—”they’re mad that the American people chose Trump, and now they’re calling on the military and intelligence community to intervene. Sounds a little, quote, ‘subversive to democracy-ish,'” says Senator Eric Schmitt. So let me give you a moment to respond to that, Congressman.
Crow replied, “Yeah, I mean, that’s so patently false and absurd, I don’t even know how to respond to it. What we are doing is reminding people of their obligations under federal law and under the UCMJ in no different way than I did when I was an infantry officer and an infantry lieutenant preparing my soldiers to be deployed. It is as simple as that. So people, you know, that is unfortunate in politics these days. People grab something and twist it and contort it and lie and make it into something that it’s not.”
MacCallum pushed back, “Some might say that you have grabbed something and twisted it and contorted it. You have, you know, you’re talking to young members of the American military, and you’re not telling them specifically what it is they should see as illegal. So you’re putting ideas into their head that maybe they’re being asked to do something illegal. And what we’re seeing actually is recruitment rising and people wanting to join the military under the president.”
Quote:Thursday on CNN’s “The Arena,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said President Donald Trump was using “fear and intimidation and threats to silence opposition” in his response to a video featuring Democratic lawmakers telling military members about refusing illegal orders.
Host Kasie Hunt said, “I’d like to start with what the president said today about you and your colleagues, that you should be arrested and that you were guilty of sedition. I think my question off the top is, how seriously do you take this as a possibility?”
Crow said, “We have to take everything that Donald Trump says seriously. He throws a lot of stuff out there, but some of the things he carries through on. But listen, I’m not going to be intimidated. I’m not going to be threatened. I took an oath to the Constitution. I’ve seen friends and people that I’ve served with give everything to uphold that oath. That is an oath that will last my entire life, and I intend to keep it. And I’m just not going to allow him to silence dissent and opposition. And it just tells us everything that we need to know that reminding people to obey the law, reminding people to obey the Constitution, is somehow criminal in Trump world and should be responded to with death threats.”
He added, “What he is trying to do is he’s trying to use fear and intimidation and threats to silence opposition. And if he’s successful in doing that, we are all lost. And I’m not going to allow him to do it. I’m going to stand up and I’m going to lead, and I’m going to do what’s necessary to uphold the Constitution now and always.”
I guess Crow forgot how Biden intimidated social media during his presidency. This is something that even Mark Zuckerberg has already admitted.
Quote:Democrats and Republicans heard two very different takeaways when a group of Democratic lawmakers called on U.S. service members not to carry out certain orders in a video that went viral on social media Tuesday.
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., one of the lawmakers featured in the video, expressed exasperation with how critics had framed the message.
"I’m not telling people to ignore orders," Houlahan said Wednesday. "I’m enormously frustrated with the way that this very sensible video is being interpreted in a really insidious way."
Houlahan and five other Democrats with military or intelligence experience had encouraged service members not to carry out unlawful orders.
"The threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear: You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution," the lawmakers said.
"Don’t give up the ship," the video added, a reference to a phrase used by the Navy.
Houlahan was joined by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., and Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.
PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL MEMBER CALLS ON NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS TO DEFY DEPLOYMENT ORDERS
The video did not give an example of what specific kinds of orders service members might have to refuse.
In a separate post to X, Slotkin hinted that service members asked to carry out airstrikes off the coast of Venezuela might be engaging in illegal strikes and said that some pilots had expressed concern about their involvement.
Republicans responding to the exhortation mocked it as an example of Democratic paranoia toward Trump.
"[It’s] Stage 4 TDS," Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in a post to X, referring to Trump Derangement Syndrome, a moniker for the Democrats' fixation on the president.
Quote:President Donald Trump slammed the six Democrats who appeared in a video telling troops to defy "illegal" orders.
"It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. "Their words cannot be allowed to stand — We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET."
In a second post, Trump wrote, "This is really bad, and dangerous to our country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???"
Trump added later Thursday that the actions were "punishable by death."
In response, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., issued a joint statement condemning Trump's "death threats" against the lawmakers.
"We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous death threats against Members of Congress and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same," the statement read.
"We have been in contact with the House Sergeant at Arms and the United States Capitol Police to ensure the safety of these members and their families. Donald Trump must immediately delete these unhinged social media posts and recant his violent rhetoric before he gets someone killed," the lawmakers added.
The video, which was posted on Tuesday by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., has drawn the ire of Republicans and the Trump administration. The Democrats in the video include Slotkin, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Reps. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo. All the lawmakers in the video highlighted their former service in the military and intelligence community.
Slotkin and her colleagues have spent recent weeks introducing legislation to limit Trump’s ability to deploy National Guard members domestically or launch military action against suspected narcoterrorists without congressional approval.
None of that context appears in the video, titled "Don’t Give Up the Ship," which instead frames the appeal as a warning to military members to "stand up for our laws" and "refuse unlawful orders."
Quote:They found comrade ground.
Zohran Mamdani’s high-stakes White House meeting turned into a Freaky Friday lovefest – as President Trump lauded the socialist mayor-elect and predicted he’ll make New York City great again.
A sitting Trump, with Mamdani standing by his side behind the Resolute Desk, heaped praise on the democratic socialist, jovially touching his arm as he helped him dodge tough questions and unexpectedly predicted his mayoralty will be a success.
“I think he wants to make it greater than ever before,” Trump told reporters. “And if he can, we’ll be out there cheering. I’ll be cheering for him.”
The erstwhile foes’ gobsmackingly friendly joint appearance came after a 45-minute closed-door sit-down in the Oval Office, which they both touted as productive and focused on Mamdani’s core campaign issue of affordability.
“He’s different than your typical guy,” Trump said, adding Mamdani “has a chance to really do something great for New York.”
Mamdani notably avoided taking any bait to praise Trump, though he did offer that the president’s better-than-expected showing in New York City during 2024’s presidential election came because of his own focus on kitchen table issues.
The mayor-elect said he wanted to focus on delivering real-world results for New Yorkers, rather than duke it out with the president over their vast differences.
“I think both President Trump and I, we are very clear about our positions and our views, and what I really appreciate about the president is the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers,” he said.
Trump agreed.
“We have one thing in common. We want this city of ours that we love to do very well,” Trump said as the two began fielding questions following their confab.
The president even swooped in when Mamdani — who during the campaign vowed he would be Trump’s “worst nightmare” — was pressed by reporters about his past insults calling him “fascist” and a “despot.”
“That’s OK, you can just say yes,” Trump joked, affectionately patting him on the arm, when Mamdani was asked if he still thought of the president as a “fascist.”
“I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting,” Trump also said when Mamdani was asked about that past dig.
Asked if he believed that the anti-Israel pol was a “jihadist,” Trump said he had met with “a very rational person.”
Quote:Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) announced Friday that she will resign from Congress after her falling out with President Trump.
“I will be resigning from office with my last day being January 5, 2026,” Greene said in a lengthy statement.
Greene’s shock announcement comes exactly a week after Trump withdrew his “support and endorsement” of the congresswoman amid her demands that the administration release documents related to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump fumed that despite his “Record Achievements for our Country,” all Greene does is “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!”
The president referred to Greene as “wacky” and a “lunatic” in last week’s Truth Social post.
Greene cited Trump’s call for a Republican to step up and challenge her in a primary ahead of the 2026 midterm elections as part of the reason she decided to step down.
“I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms,” Greene said.
“It’s all so absurd and completely unserious,” the Georgia Republican continued. “I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.”
Greene’s departure will narrow the GOP’s slim majority in the House, where 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats are currently seated.
A House GOP aide described Greene’s plans to resign to The Post as a “vindictive” move to deliberately “f—k” over the majority.
“MTG left before Pelosi did,” the aide snarked, referring to 85-year-old Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s decision not to seek re-election and retire from office in January of 2027.
Greene, who had previously been a staunch supporter of the president, has broken with Trump on several issues in recent weeks — including by voicing support for an extension of Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies set to expire Dec. 31 and pushing for the Justice Department to release the so-called Epstein files.
Quote:Democrat Representative Al Green has announced he will file articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump before Christmas.
Speaking in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Green told supporters he would introduce the measures as a privileged motion before Congress breaks for the holidays.
"There will be articles of impeachment filed before the Christmas break, this I will pledge to you," Green said.
Newsweek contacted the White House and Green for comment by email.
Why It Matters
Trump was impeached twice during his first presidency, but was acquitted by the U.S. Senate in both cases. Given that Republicans hold a majority in the House of Representatives, it is unlikely that an impeachment effort would be successful, but efforts to remove Trump may damage his reputation and standing with his GOP colleagues.
What To Know
Greene previously introduced articles of impeachment against Trump in May, claiming he was "unfit to be President."
Meanwhile, in April, Representative Shri Thanedar introduced seven articles of impeachment against Trump for various reasons, including Trump's use of the Department of Government Efficiency and Trump's implementation of "damaging tariffs" on the U.S.'s trading partners.
Green told local reporters he had not asked House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries or others in Democratic leadership about his latest move to impeach Trump.
He did not provide further details about the plan.
Speaking to Newsweek, Heath Brown, an associate professor of public policy at City University of New York, said: "Based on what has occurred thus far, I don't think these articles of impeachment will go very far."
Just keep in mind what happened to Al Green back in March...
Quote:A group of Democratic lawmakers briefly threw the House of Representatives into disarray Thursday following a bipartisan vote to censure Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) for disrupting President Trump’s address to Congress.
While Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) read the rebuke of Green aloud, a handful of Dem reps joined him in the well of the House chamber, refusing to leave before singing the Civil Rights Era anthem “We Shall Overcome.”
“The House will come to order,” Johnson demanded after finishing the reading as Democrats continued singing.
“Clear the well please,” the speaker added, “the House will continue its business.”
The Democrats refused to leave, forcing Johnson to recess the chamber.
Just before the chaotic episode, the House voted 224-198 to approve the resolution denouncing Green, 77, who voted present and is now the 28th lawmaker in US history to be censured.
Ten Democrats backed the resolution: Long Island Reps. Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi, Ami Bera of California, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Jim Himes of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington State.
Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Ala.) joined Green in voting present.
The vote does not strip Green of any privileges, though some Republicans had suggested he be removed from his committees as punishment for his outburst.
The conservative House Freedom Caucus announced later Thursday that it will be pushing a measure to strip Green of his committee assignments over his disruption.
Quote:The Democratic National Committee took out a $15 million loan in October, an unusually large amount of debt for this point in the political calendar, as the party looks to rebuild its brand and infrastructure under new leadership.
New fundraising reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show the national party committee took out the loan at the start of October, about a month before Democrats secured major victories in pivotal elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, a key redistricting referendum in California and various other downballot races.
Those results have energized the Democratic Party one year after President Donald Trump swept the presidential battleground states on his way to defeating then-Vice President Kamala Harris and as poll after poll in the wake of that loss shows the party's image at an all-time low.
National party groups often take out loans just before elections to help fund the frantic final weeks of activity. Such a large loan one year out from a national election is uncommon, especially at this point in the four-year election cycle.
And while the party out of power typically trails the president's party in terms of fundraising, the Republican National Committee stockpiled a massive lead over its Democratic counterparts going into October, $85 million to $12 million.
The RNC has not yet filed its monthly fundraising report, which is due Thursday. The DNC's shows it closed the month with about $18 million banked away after having taken the $15 million loan.
In a statement to The New York Times, which obtained the DNC's filing shortly before it was publicly released, DNC Chairman Ken Martin framed the decision as a way to help invest in party-building activities. DNC officials have said the national party has upped its monthly commitment to state parties to more than $1 million a month, and the party said this month that it invested more than $3 million each into Virginia and New Jersey ahead of the elections there.
Those commitments and giving to state parties have drawn down the funds the DNC has available for the next election.
“We can’t win elections or fight back against Trump if the D.N.C. downsizes operations like it often does after a presidential cycle,” Martin told the Times. “I made a bet that investing early would build power, rack up wins and rally supporters back to the table. That bet is paying off.”
Quote:WASHINGTON (TNDD) — First son Donald Trump Jr. said that the Bush family cannot have control of the Republican Party after his father is out of office.
Trump Jr. quote tweeted a post that read, “Report: The Bush family is planning to reclaim control of the Republican Party when the Trump presidency comes to an end.”
He responded and said, “We will never let this happen.”
According to a report from Breitbart earlier this week, the Bush family is planning to retake control of the GOP after President Donald Trump leaves office.
A former Bush official told the news outlet that they know Trump doesn’t have another term to run and said there would be an “open field” for Republicans in 2028 despite Vice President J.D. Vance having a good chance of getting the nomination.
George H.W. Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993. His son George W. Bush served as president from 2001 to 2009.
Former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele has reportedly been asking former President George W. Bush to get more involved in the party.
The Bush family has been critical of Trump since his first presidency.
When Bush's former Vice President Dick Cheney died, neither Trump or Vance went to his funeral.
EPSTEIN
Quote:Ghislaine Maxwell told lawmakers through her attorneys that she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if she sits in a planned interview with the House Oversight Committee.
Why It Matters
The House Oversight Committee’s efforts to question Maxwell highlight soaring tensions over the transparency of high-profile federal investigations and growing scrutiny on the management of convicted sex offenders in U.S. prisons.
Maxwell, convicted of aiding Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking operation, has become a focal point for officials and the public following whistleblower allegations of her preferred treatment in federal custody and amid the backdrop of President Donald Trump signing the bill to release files related to Epstein this week.
What To Know
The panel has sought for months to question Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal sentence for helping Epstein traffic and sexually abuse teenage girls.
Committee Chair James Comer told Politico he may not send staff to meet with Maxwell since she intends to decline all questions.
“Her lawyers have replied that she’s not going to answer any questions,” Comer said. “She’s only going to plead the Fifth. I mean, I could spend a bunch of taxpayer dollars to send staff and members down there, and if she’s going to plead the Fifth, I don’t know that that’s a good investment.”
Democrats on the panel, meanwhile, have raised concerns about why Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security federal prison camp shortly after agreeing to sit for an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
What People Are Saying
Oversight Democrats posted on X on Friday: "Ghislaine Maxwell is getting special treatment and privileges from Donald Trump. She is refusing to cooperate with our investigation. She's campaigning for a pardon. She has violently harmed and abused countless women and girls. It's a White House coverup. What are they hiding?"
Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack of Florida posted on X earlier this month: "Before today’s vote, my bipartisan female colleagues and I heard directly from the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific crimes. For years, these women carried the weight of unspeakable atrocities while others tried to bury the truth. Today’s vote to release the remaining Epstein files is about one thing: standing with survivors, exposing the truth, and finally ending decades of cover-ups that protected Epstein and his powerful allies."
Quote:Larry Summers has been forced out of his lucrative consulting gig at ‘woke’ hedge fund DE Shaw — effectively ending the former Treasury Secretary’s career on Wall Street following a scandal over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, The Post has learned.
Two insiders, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 70-year-old Summers — who had sought dating advice from the dead pedophile in a trove of embarrassing emails that surfaced last week — had still been listed as an adviser on the hedge fund’s internal directory as recently as Friday morning.
“They just terminated him,” a source told The Post after an email to Summers’ DE Shaw address requesting comment bounced back.
“Larry Summers is no longer a consultant to the firm,” a DE Shaw spokesperson said of the former chief economist of the World Bank, who was once described by the New York Times as the company’s “marquee hire” to drum up clients all over the world.
The spokesperson declined to provide further details about Summers’ departure from DE Shaw, which has more than $70 billion of assets under management. Summers did not return further calls or emails from The Post seeking comment.
He had been a consultant on macroeconomics to the secretive financial giant since 2011. It is the latest blow for Summers after he was put on leave from his teaching gig at Harvard University this week.
The Obama and Clinton administration alum worked for the wildly lucrative investment firm “off-site” from Boston, a stone’s throw from Harvard’s Cambridge campus, and reported to one of the firm’s managing directors, Max Stone, the insiders said.
His first stint with the New York-based powerhouse began in 2006 when he joined as a managing director, bringing with him his long-time trusted adviser, Michael O’Mary, who joined the following year, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The one-time Harvard president left in late 2008 to become President Barack Obama’s top economics guru before returning as a consultant after Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary quit government for the second time.
DE Shaw saw its algorithm-driven trades make it the most profitable hedge fund in 2024, raking in $11.1 billion for investors, according to Institutional Investor magazine.
Quote:WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has ordered Bill and Hillary Clinton to appear for depositions next month for the panel’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — or face possible contempt of Congress.
Comer initially subpoenaed the former first couple on Aug. 5 to answer questions about their relationship with Epstein — but the Clintons’ attorney in a Nov. 3 response had asked for his clients to make merely “a written proffer of what little information” they have.
“Given the admission that your clients possess some relevant information, your position amounts to a demand that the Committee forgo in-person testimony, potentially relevant to its legislative oversight,” the powerful GOP chairman said.
“Additionally, your suggestion that your clients’ testimony would not be relevant to the stated purposes of the Committee’s investigation because the events in question took place outside of the Clintons’ respective official duties misses the Committee’s point,” Comer added.
“It is precisely the fact President Clinton and Secretary Clinton each maintained relationships with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell in their personal capacities as private citizens that is of interest to the Committee.”
The 42nd president has been ordered to appear for his deposition at 10 a.m. Dec. 17. His wife, the former secretary of state, was directed to sit for her deposition at 10 a.m. the following day.
If the former first couple fail to show up in defiance of subpoenas, Comer said he’d begin contempt of Congress proceedings. That would require a resolution to pass out of the House Oversight Committee and then the full House. A criminal referral would then be sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Under the Biden administration, Trump allies Steven Bannon and Peter Navarro were prosecuted and sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress convictions for failing to comply with subpoenas issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Experts have suggested that the former president and former secretary of state may be able to invoke executive privilege to spurn the deposition, though it’s unclear whether that would extend to “their personal capacities.”
Quote:Disgraced ex-Harvard president Larry Summers reportedly spent his honeymoon on Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious private island — flying from Massachusetts on the convicted billionaire pedophile’s jet with Ghislaine Maxwell, flight records show.
Summers flew to Saint James on Epstein’s infamous “Lolita Express” with his wife, Elisa F. New, shortly after their Dec. 11, 2005, wedding in Cambridge, and was accompanied by the disgraced financier’s infamous madam, who was later convicted on sex trafficking charges, the Harvard Crimson reported Thursday.
“Mr. Summers and Ms. New spent their honeymoon in St. John and Jamaica in December 2005, which was long before Mr. Epstein was arrested for the first time,” a spokesperson for Summers told the outlet.
“As part of that trip, they made a brief visit of less than a day to Mr. Epstein’s island.”
The island getaway came six months after Palm Beach police began investigating Epstein for the rape of a 14-year-old girl, with a search warrant later executed on his mansion in October 2005.
Flight logs show Summers flew to the 72-acre Caribbean island on Dec. 21, 2005 — and took Epstein’s jet, allegedly used to ferry victims and accomplices in his sex-trafficking rings, three other times.
Three of the trips occurred while the 70-year-old was serving as Harvard’s president.
President Bill Clinton’s former Treasury secretary — who helmed the elite university between 2001 and 2006 and was a tenured economics professor there since 1983 — resigned from the board of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, on Wednesday amid a firestorm over his ties to the infamous predator.
Hours later, Summers went on leave from his teaching role and as head of Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center, a post he’s held since 2001.
The fallout comes after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released over 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate, showing Summers had a chummy relationship with the billionaire and exchanged thousands of emails between 2013 and 2019.
Epstein, who died by suicide in jail awaiting trial in 2019, was convicted of sex-trafficking minors in 2008.
Quote:Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, the Long Island neurosurgeon who Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) suggested could be the notorious sex trafficker, told The Post Thursday about the masterstroke of revenge he could dish out on the loud-mouthed congresswoman who dragged his name through the mud.
“I think that I should contribute money to Jasmine Crockett and then let everybody know that she also took money from Jeffrey Epstein,” Epstein told The Post.
Crockett boasted on the House floor this week that she was “gonna expose it all” after her discovery that “somebody named Jeffrey Epstein” donated to the campaign of former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY).
In her rant, the Texas Democrat strongly implied that the Manhasset doctor’s April and August 2020 contributions to Zeldin, who is now head of the Environmental Protection Agency, were actually from the convicted pedophile — despite the fact that the $1,000 donations were made months after the disgraced financier died in a Manhattan jail cell.
“Until she said something, it was never an issue,” Epstein said when asked if he’s ever been confused for the well-connected sex criminal in the past.
“I say my name and sometimes people will give me a look, or whatever,” he acknowledged.
Epstein’s response to awkward questions?
“I always look at them and say, ‘I don’t understand,’ and I make it like I’m dumb,” he said.
“Listen, that’s my name,” Epstein continued, seemingly annoyed by the fuss over his name.
“If my name was Jeffrey Dahmer when that whole thing came out — do you think that would be a problem?” he added. “Listen, anytime a doppelganger is tied to a less-than-desirable, it’s never a good situation.”
“But it doesn’t matter to me. I could[n’t] care less.”
FIREBUG
Quote:The career criminal who set a woman aflame on a Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line train Monday night is facing federal terrorism charges as authorities investigate his possible connection to a suspicious fire at City Hall a few days earlier, authorities said.
Lawrence Reed, 50, remains in custody on a charge of committing a terrorist attack on a mass transit system for allegedly dousing a 26-year-old commuter with an accelerant and setting her ablaze after the pair got in a heated argument while aboard a CTA train.
The unidentified victim remains in critical condition at Stroger Hospital.
The alleged fire attack is just the latest in a decades-long string of criminality for Reed, who has been let off with slaps on the wrist again and again despite a massive rap sheet.
He has 22 prior arrests since 2016 alone, and 53 criminal cases in Cook County dating back to 1993 — nine of them felonies for which he pleaded guilty. But he’s only served time twice, spending a paltry total of two-and-a-half years behind bars, according to CWB Chicago.
According to court records viewed by the outlet, Reed was released with an electronic ankle monitor in August after knocking a social worker out cold at a psychiatric hospital where he had been committed, leaving her with “likely optic nerve damage and a concussion, causing her to experience memory issues, headaches, and daily nausea,” a detention petition viewed by the outlet read in part.
Prosecutors asked Reed to remain locked up, but a judge overruled them, leaving him free to roam the streets.
Despite a court clerk’s note saying Reed should be monitored “24/7” upon release, the judge signed a separate document showing she was allowing him to leave his home between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. on weekdays.
Three weeks later, a different judge altered the monitoring conditions to allow him to be outside of the home for some daylight hours on Tuesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, the outlet writes.
In another alarming twist, cops are now looking into whether the same firebug was responsible for a blaze that broke out at City Hall on Friday, ABC 7 reported.
A person spotted in surveillance footage bears a similarity to the alleged attacker, and detectives are now seeking higher-quality video to help determine whether the same person was responsible for both incidents, a source told the outlet.
Monday’s fiery assault came just a week after a 27-year-old woman was stabbed in the chest by a deranged knife-wielding man as she sat on a bench at the UIC-Halsted Blue Line platform near the University of Illinois Chicago on Nov. 10, according to police.
Quote:The violent firebug who allegedly set a woman ablaze on a Chicago train earlier this week was released by a judge in a separate assault case in August — despite prosecutors petitioning for the serial criminal to be jailed.
Lawrence Reed, 50 — who left a woman fighting for her life in Monday’s horrific caught-on-camera train incident — had been sprung in the earlier case Aug. 22 with electronic monitoring even though prosecutors warned a judge it wasn’t enough to protect the community from him, according to a report by CWB Chicago.
But Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez freed Reed on a felony aggravated battery charge for allegedly slapping a social worker so hard that she was knocked out during an Aug. 19 assault inside the psychiatric ward of the MacNeal Hospital, court records show.
Under Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act, judges can’t hold a defendant in jail unless they are charged with a felony and meet a slew of other criteria, including having a criminal history, posing a risk of endangering the community or being a flight risk.
Prosecutor Jerrilyn Gumila had warned the judge at the time that electronic monitoring would be “wholly insufficient.” And she was allegedly proven right.
“It could not protect the victim or the community from another vicious, random, and spontaneous attacks,” Gumila told the judge of freeing Reed, according to a transcript of the Aug. 22 hearing in a Maywood court, the outlet said.
Gumila described how Reed could be seen on surveillance video flying off the handle as the social worker was speaking with him inside the locked ward.
He “became irate and slapped the victim in the face with an open palm,” Gumila said. “Her vision went black, and she lost consciousness for several seconds. One of the victim’s co-workers rushed over and helped the victim walk down to her office, and the victim was then taken to the emergency room.”
The social worker’s injuries included a cut on the cornea of her eye, possible optic nerve bruising, a concussion that caused her nausea and memory loss and a chipped tooth, Gumila said.
At the time, the prosecutor also ran through Reed’s extensive criminal history — which included a 2020 arson conviction for setting a fire outside a Chicago building.
“The defendant poses a real and present threat to the safety of, especially this victim, whoever else was working in the hospital that day, and the community as a whole,” Gumila told the judge of the August incident.
“The defendant randomly and spontaneously became irate in this situation where the victim was just attempting to do her job as a social worker, and now as a result, suffered injuries so severe that she still has side effects on a daily basis.”
Reed’s lawyer, Nicholas Yannias, chalked his client’s behavior up to his 26-year-long struggle with a mental illness that makes him “paranoid.”
CONTENTS ARE TOO STRONG FOR SENSITIVE AUDIENCES
Quote:Two twisted Texans allegedly planned to invade a small Haitian island with an army of homeless people — to kill all the men so they could enslave the women and kids as “their sex slaves,” according to federal prosecutors.
Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, 20, were indicted for conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country for the bonkers plot “for the purpose of carrying out their rape fantasies,” federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
The accused pedophiles “planned to purchase a sailboat, firearms, and ammunition, then recruit members of the [Washington, DC] homeless population to serve as a mercenary force as they invaded Gonave Island and staged a coup d’etat,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas said of the island of about 100,000 people.
“Weisenburg and Thomas intended to murder all of the men on the island so that they could then turn all of the women and children into their sex slaves,” the feds alleged.
The pair “undertook numerous overt acts in furtherance of their invasion plan, including making operational and logistical plans” — and even learning Haitian Creole, the feds said.
Weisenburg enrolled in the North Texas Fire Academy to learn “command-and-control protocols” and traveled to Thailand to take sailing lessons, according to the indictment.
Thomas even enlisted in the US Air Force to acquire military skills needed for the murderous takeover, the feds said, with the Air Force involved in the investigation.
He changed his initial station assignment from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to Andrews Air Base in Maryland to be close to potential homeless recruits in the DC area.
Both were also charged with persuading a minor to make child pornography, which was found on their devices.
The pair allegedly planned to storm Gonave Island, part of the Republic of Haiti.
Gonave Island is located in Port-au-Prince Bay and is the largest island off the island of Hispaniola. Despite picture-postcard beaches and views, its population has suffered widespread hunger, according to the La Gonave Community & Child Association.
Weisenburg, of Allen, and Thomas, of Argyle, face up to life in federal prison if convicted of the conspiracy to murder, maim or kidnap in a foreign country charges.
Quote:JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon hosted an extravagant party to celebrate King Charles’ 77th birthday on Thursday in the bank’s shiny new Manhattan skyscraper.
It was an all-out birthday bash – what Brits might call a bit of a “knees-up” – complete with a huge projection of the Union Jack on the side of JPMorgan’s new $3 billion headquarters.
Though the king himself was not there, members of the British Consulate and celebrities like actor Brian Cox and former Prime Minister Tony Blair stopped by to cheer “Long live the king” – after first cheering for President Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Charles celebrated his birthday on Nov. 14 after a spate of health issues including a cancer diagnosis. The palace has not specified what kind of cancer the king has.
The event in the new Lord Norman Foster-designed building featured classic British nosh like Yorkshire pudding and beef pie with Stilton cheese, in a room decked out with photos of the royal family and former President Reagan and Trump, according to The Journal.
There were also tables with sushi and nigiri sushi for those adverse to British pub grub.
Members of Parliament and British nobles wearing kilts chatted with reality TV stars like Ubah Hassan from “The Real Housewives of New York City” and Mary Holland Nader from “Love Thy Nader,” The Journal reported.
The belated birthday party might have seemed unusual for a number of reasons – not only was Charles thousands of miles away; the festivities took place in a country readying to celebrate 250 years of independence from the Brits.
But it wasn’t such an unexpected move for Dimon, who has been growing closer with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government and is friendly with French President Emmanuel Macron. He met the king during a global investment summit in the UK in 2023.
Dimon used the event to spread his goal of bringing the US and Europe closer together, warning of the dangers of a weakened trans-Atlantic alliance as he thanked the British for their help in countering Nazism.
“There’s a whiskey bar back there,” he said on a less serious note to roughly 400 guests as he took to the stage. “Thank God, mostly Scottish whiskey.”
Varun Chandra, Starmer’s special adviser on business and investment, made a speech that flopped with a string of “very cringeworthy and overused Dad jokes” about the differences between Britain and the US, an attendee said.
Starbucks barista strike expands nationwide days after NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s boycott call
Quote:The Starbucks union says its strike has expanded to over 30 locations throughout the country, with the latest work stoppage hitting a store in Albany, NY, days after after New York City’s socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani called for a boycott of the chain.
Baristas at the Starbucks on New Scotland Avenue in New York’s state capital went on strike Thursday, the same day top officials with the incoming Mamdani administration joined a picket line outside a Starbucks in Manhattan’s Financial District.
Continuing his anti-capitalist message, Mamdani tweeted: “making NYC affordable means an end to unfair labor practices and a living wage for our workers.
“We are their partners in the fight to live in this city with dignity,” said the pol, who takes office just after midnight on Jan. 1.
Mamdani’s transition co-chair, lefty darling Lina Khan, and his pick for first deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, gave moral support to the striking baristas, according to the mayor-elect’s tweet.
The Post has sought comment from the Mamdani campaign.
Meanwhile upstate, over a dozen baristas were seen holding signs in the early hours of Thursday, protesting what their union calls management’s slow-walking of contract negotiations.
The New Scotland Avenue location is the first in the Upstate Capitol region to join the strike, the Times Union reported.
As of Friday, the strike had expanded to stores in some 25 US cities — including Cleveland, Memphis, and Springfield, Mo. — according to Starbucks Workers United. At least 1,000 workers have participated, the group said.
Union members launched the strike last week on Starbucks’ “Red Cup Day,” an annual promotion in which the chain hands out a reusable cup to anyone who orders one of the store’s holiday drinks.
“Starbucks knows where we stand,” the union told The Post in a statement.
“We’ve been clear and consistent on what baristas need to succeed: more take-home pay, better hours, resolving legal issues,” the group added. “Bring us NEW proposals that address these issues so we can finalize a contract.
“Until then, you’ll see us and our allies on the picket line.”
Starbucks says the strike has caused minimal disruption at its stores.
“We’re proud to offer the best job in retail,” a Starbucks spokesperson told The Post in a statement. “When the union is ready to return to the bargaining table, we’re ready to talk.”
Quote:David Gergel, a former US Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, was poisoned to death by toxic water at the North Carolina military base, according to his son, who hopes the Trump administration will provide sick and dying veterans “ignored for years” a shot at “long overdue justice.”
The Camp Lejeune Justice Act, passed by Congress and signed into law in 2022, was expected to provide the justice long sought by veterans like Gergel, of Elmira, NY, who died in 2012 of bladder cancer. The legislation allows those affected decades ago by the base’s contaminated water to sue the federal government for damages.
The Biden administration, however, fiercely litigated claims and was slow to pay out, settling only a fraction of the 400,000 or so cases brought by victims, which have moved at a crawl.
“In 1978, my dad got orders to report to Camp Lejeune and served there proudly,” Gergel’s son, Eric, told The Post. “He never thought for a second that the water he was drinking, showering in, and cooking with was poisoning him.
“It wasn’t until more than 30 years later that we realized something was wrong.”
Eric explained the symptoms his father began suffering in 2011 and his eventual cancer diagnosis “just didn’t make sense.”
Bladder cancer was a disease “nobody in our family has ever had,” Eric said.
“My dad passed right before my 26th birthday,” he said. “I have not had him for the majority of my adult life, and he never got the chance to meet my children or to be a grandad, which I know he always wanted to be.”
Eric spoke out, ahead of a visit to the base Wednesday by first lady Melania Trump and second lady Usha Vance, because he knows “there are many other veterans who are still alive and who are suffering from debilitating illnesses and struggling to pay for their care, and thousands more who have succumbed to the injuries they got from the water, as my dad did.”
In the late 1980s, the military determined that two water wells at Camp Lejeune contained a high presence of volatile organic compounds.
Years later, testing by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in the 1990s determined that between 1953 and 1987 an off-base dry cleaners, leaking underground storage tanks, industrial area spills and waste disposal sites had been contaminating the water on the base with several potentially dangerous chemicals.
Quote:WASHINGTON — House lawmakers unanimously moved Wednesday to claw back a provision tucked into the stopgap bill to end the government shutdown last week that would enable spied-on senators to sue the government for up to $500,000.
The lower chamber voted 426-0 to scrap the provision House GOP lawmakers claimed they had been jammed with by their Senate peers last week during the rush to reopen the government.
“Not only was it disrespectful to Speaker Johnson and House Republicans to slip the Senate’s $500,000 payout into a funding bill at the last minute, but now Leader Thune is mocking House Republicans and doubling down,” Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.) said.
“[Thune] is playing House Republicans for fools.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) defended the provision in an interview with CNN, but has been coy about whether the upper chamber will vote on the House’s bill to nix the controversial perk for senators.
“The House is going to do what they’re going to do with it. It didn’t apply to them,” Thune told CNN Tuesday.
“I don’t think anybody was talking about taking the money,” he continued, “but I think the penalty is in place to ensure that in the future … there is a remedy in place.”
Last month, it was revealed that the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe, which was later taken over by former special counsel Jack Smith, had obtained phone records of 10 sitting GOP lawmakers, including nine senators.
The records included metadata showing which calls were made and received by those lawmakers, not the content of the actual calls.
Under the controversial provision tucked into the stopgap bill to reopen the government, senators can sue the government and claim up to $500,000 in damages, plus attorneys’ fees, per each instance when their call logs were forked over to the feds.
Critically, the provision was retroactive to 2022, which cleared the way for the GOP senators to pursue up to a $500,000 settlement per instance their phone’s metadata was turned over.
UKRAINE WAR
Quote:An American helping evacuate people in war-torn Ukraine was hit by shrapnel from a Russian drone targeting his vehicle, leaving the humanitarian with a bloodied face, harrowing video shows.
Footage from Wednesday’s excursion into Lyman captured the moment Devon Masser — a volunteer with the Pennsylvania-based Christian humanitarian aid group Plain Compassion Crisis Response — was struck while carrying out an evacuation mission, Radio Free Europe reported.
Masser was riding with two police officers and a reporter for a Ukrainian outlet when a Russian fiber-optic drone pulled up near their van and detonated, sending glass and metal flying everywhere.
The men quickly fled from the car, with Masser seen holding the left side of his face in pain as they weaved through a destroyed field and away from the burning car.
The officers could be seen trying to provide Masser with first aid.
“I’m with Plain Compassion Crisis Response. We’re here to evacuate people,” the bloodied Masser said in a quick brief following the attack.
The PCCR has been in Ukraine since the start of the war in 2022, with its staff working to help carry out evacuations as Moscow’s army rolled through the border.
The organization has continued to help Ukrainians flee from the frontlines, with its members also helping provide food and supplies to civilians, as well as adoption services for children orphaned by the war.
PCCR did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
During Wednesday’s drone strike, Masser was traveling with members of the Donetsk Police’s White Angels unit, which is carrying out civilian evacuations in the besieged region amid the Russian invasion.
Quote:Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to deny that the US had decided to push a Moscow-friendly peace plan on Ukraine, becoming the first Trump administration official to publicly temper expectations on a reported deal that would gut Kyiv’s defense force and give up land to Russia.
“Ending a complex and deadly war such as the one in Ukraine requires an extensive exchange of serious and realistic ideas. And achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions,” he wrote in a cryptic post to X on Thursday night. “That is why we are and will continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict.”
The comment came after Axios on Tuesday reported a deal had been reached, citing Putin henchman Kirill Dmitriev, who claimed he worked on the plan with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
On Wednesday, The Post revealed details of the 28-point framework, which called for Ukraine to shrink its Army to 2.5 times smaller than it is now; force Kyiv to turn over long-range missiles “or any kind that can reach Moscow or St. Petersburg”; and ban any international brigades within Ukraine — which has long been considered the best way to ensure a halt to Russia’s assault would remain in place, according to sources familiar with the details.
Financial Times also reported the deal would include the entirety of Ukraine’s Donbas region — including portions of the territory that Russia has been unable to capture in more than 11 years of war there.
Politico later reported that a senior White House official said the proposed framework could be agreed to “as soon as this week,” despite including terms experts say were unreasonable to expect of Ukraine, amounting to the near-abandonment of its sovereignty.
“Giving up the remainder of the Donbas would enable the Russians to make a run on Kyiv as the territory is flat and reducing the size of the Ukrainian military, giving up weapons and no international security force would make that an even more likely outcome,” said the Atlantic Council’s Alex Plitsas.
“If the plan as described is accurate, it would put $200 billion in US military assistance and aid to Ukraine at risk. Any peace plan needs to protect US taxpayer investments and this proposal is deeply unserious,” he added.
While Ukrainian officials confirmed the plan was presented to Kyiv, Rubio’s comments appear to convey that the deal was not set in stone.
However, a senior US official said Trump “has been briefed on the plan and supports it,” adding that Witkoff had been “quietly working on this plan for a month, receiving input from both the Ukrainians and the Russians on what terms are acceptable to them to end the war.”
“Both sides will have to make concessions, not just Ukraine,” the person said.
Asked for clarification on what Rubio meant about the plan, the White House released a general response stating that “the president and his team never gives up.”
Quote:President Trump argued Friday that Ukraine’s military will soon collapse in the face of Russian pressure if Kyiv doesn’t agree to a much-criticized plan to end the conflict — adding in a radio interview that it would be “appropriate” for Ukraine to put pen to paper by the Thanksgiving holiday.
“They’re losing land. They’re losing land,” Trump told Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show” of Kyiv’s battlefield prospects.
“We’re in it for one thing,” the president told host Brian Kilmeade. “We want the killing to — you know, they lost 25,000 people last month between the two countries, 25,000 people. It’s out of control. It’s a bloodbath.”
The 28-point plan, details of which were reported by The Post on Thursday, was presented to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
On Friday, in a recorded address apparently responding to the US, Zelensky said Ukraine “may now face a very difficult choice, either losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner.”
“Currently, the pressure on Ukraine is one of the hardest,” added Zelesnky, who vowed to “work calmly with America and all partners.”
The framework calls for US recognition of the entire eastern Donbas region — which has been under attack by Moscow for 11 years — as Russian territory, while battle lines will be frozen in two other war-torn regions, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Most controversially, Ukraine would have to limit its armed forces to 600,000 troops, enshrine permanent neutrality by pledging never to join NATO, and codify that ban in its own charter.
NATO, in turn, would have to promise not to station troops in Ukraine — though European fighter jets would be based in neighboring Poland.
The plan has left supporters of Ukraine aghast, with Reuters quoting one source as saying of the Trump administration: “They want to stop the war and want Ukraine to pay the price.”
Trump defended the framework Friday, arguing that if Ukraine didn’t agree to it, “they will lose in a short period of time.”
The president also insisted that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is “not looking for more war” once the Ukraine conflict is settled.
“Look, he’s taking punishment,” he told Kilmeade. “Say what you want. I mean, this was supposed to be a one-day war that [has been going] four years now, OK?
“But in all fairness, we gave them the best military — we make the best equipment in the world. We gave Ukraine the best military equipment anywhere in the world. Nobody makes — and we gave them a lot of it. But somebody had to use that equipment, and say what you want, they were very brave.”
Quote:WASHINGTON — The US has proposed a decade-long security guarantee for Ukraine billed as “NATO-style” — but actually falls far short of promising an Article 5-like response, multiple national security analysts told The Post on Friday.
Under the plan, a “significant, deliberate and sustained” Russian strike on Ukrainian territory would be “regarded as an attack threatening the peace and security of the transatlantic community” for the next 10 years — but it does not commit the US to providing a military response to such aggression.
While NATO’s Article 5 triggers an obligation for each member to come to an attacked party’s assistance in responding to an attack — militarily, economically or otherwise — the floated “guarantee” stops short of committing the US to taking any action.
Instead, it affirms that the US president will “determine the measures necessary to restore security,” which could include military force, intelligence support, economic pressure or other actions — after consultations with Kyiv, NATO and European allies. But it could also be nothing at all.
That’s where the proposed plan loses teeth. Essentially, the plan guarantees that the US president will consider intervening — not that Washington will push back on Russia if it tries to re-up its war.
In that way, the plan is similar to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum — in which Kyiv gave up its nuclear arsenal for Russia’s pledge not to invade Ukraine and the US guarantee it would intervene should Moscow violate it, Institute for the Study of War Russia program lead George Barros told The Post.
“Any security guarantee that doesn’t obligate a military response to Ukraine is likely to fail,” he said. “Ukraine had such security assurances under the Budapest Memorandum, which Russia violated, and which the US as one of the guarantors, did little in response.”
Even if the president does choose to act, it does not mean that an intervention would include military action.
“Successive American presidents of both parties have made clear they will not fight Russia over Ukraine,” Foundation for Defending Democracy’s Russia program director John Hardie told The Post. “So under the proposed arrangement, Kyiv would basically be left with a promise to reimpose sanctions and provide arms and intelligence.
“That’s not nothing, but it does underscore why Ukraine must maintain a sizable, capable military under any deal — and why Washington and its allies must invest in making post-war Ukraine a ‘steel porcupine,'” he added.
What’s more, the proposal comes alongside a potential peace deal that, in part, explicitly states no NATO or other foreign forces would be stationed in Ukraine.
“One of the ways in which this is not like NATO is that the plan states that Ukraine may host no foreign NATO forces,” Barros said. “It’s unclear how exactly is compatible with ‘Article 5-style’ guarantees.”
The vague guarantee is one of the only proverbial carrots included in a 28-point proposed peace plan devised by Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff after consultations with both Ukrainian and Russian officials.
That agreement, which would see Kyiv surrendering the entirety of its Donbas region, pledge to never join NATO, shrink its armed forces from its current estimated 2.1 million to just 600,000 personnel — and grant amnesty for all parties involved in wartime actions, eliminating any future legal claims over Russian war crimes.
Quote:WASHINGTON — The US peace plan to end the war in Ukraine contains almost no concessions from Russia aside from it abandoning its vow to take over the entire country — and American officials say they can’t see why Kyiv would accept the proposal.
The plan, devised by President Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, after consultations with both Ukrainian and Russian officials, would see Kyiv surrendering the entirety of its Donbas region.
The handed-over area would include territory that the Kremlin hasn’t even been able to secure for more than a decade, since it made a separate land grab for it in 2014.
The proposed pact also calls for Ukraine to pledge to never join NATO, shrink its armed forces from its current estimated 900,000 to 600,000 personnel — and grant amnesty for all parties involved in wartime actions, eliminating any future legal claims over Russian war crimes.
Some US officials and experts characterized the plan as a no-win for Kyiv.
“The proposal is a bad deal and one that the Trump administration rightfully refused to accept in the past,” Institute for the Study of War Russia program lead George Barros told The Post.
“Deterring future Russian aggression against Ukraine requires a strong Ukrainian military, foreign support to Ukraine — ideally in the form of foreign troops in-country — and a defendable frontline.”
A senior US official told The Post that the main sticking point for Russian officials when asked what concessions they would accept was getting them to simply accept that they can’t take over all of Ukraine.
The conflict is costing Moscow roughly 7,000 Russian lives a day as its economy hemorrhages.
“I mean, look, everyone knows Vladimir Putin wants to take the whole country,’’ the official said of the Russian dictator. “That’s his been his long-sought goal. That is something he’s made quite clear. The president is very aware of that.
“This plan obviously stops [Putin] in his tracks, ends the war — and also forces him to relinquish some territory, which you know is a huge loss for him and for Russia,” the source said.
“And there’s some other little details in there as well that are concessions from their side too, but yeah, sort of the overall point.”
Officials on Thursday told The Post that Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov gave “positive feedback” on the discussed terms of the proposed plan during his talks with Witkoff in Miami in recent weeks. But the sources stopped short of saying Kyiv signed off on the deal.
“The plan was drawn up immediately following discussions with one of the most senior members of Zelensky’s administration, Umerov,” one of the officials said. “So Umerov agreed to the majority of this plan, and he made several modifications to it, which we included and presented it to President Zelensky.
“I don’t want to say that [Kyiv] full-heartedly … agreed to it and they’re ready to sign off. They agreed to the majority of the plan,” the source said.
Quote:Several European members of NATO are considering buying new high-endurance underwater drones for their navies to protect critical infrastructure and hunt Russian submarines.
The pair of drones, known collectively as GreyShark, were developed by German technology companies EUROATLAS and EvoLogics for reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering missions, including information on vital pipelines and cables along the seabed.
The autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can also be used for mine detection and anti-submarine warfare (ASW), the companies say. Many NATO nations are heavily investing in ASW and the alliance held drills focused on countering submarines in the Baltic Sea this month.
A shorter-range version of the penguin-shaped drone, dubbed Bravo, and a longer-lasting, hydrogen-cell-powered iteration called Foxtrot have been undergoing trials in the Baltic off the coast of northern Germany.
EUROATLAS declined to specify which countries were looking at acquiring the drone but said multiple nations in the region had expressed different levels of interest in the AUVs. Asian customers are also considering buying the technology, according to those involved.
A German military source, confirming the German navy's interest in the drone to Newsweek, described the AUV as a "useful asset."
Bremen-based EUROATLAS said it had developed the underwater drones in just a year and a half, opting for speed over meticulously laid-out development plans as NATO countries across heavily invest in defense, often for the first time in decades.
"In the past, we had a lot of time, but no money," Eugen Ciemnyjewski, EUROATLAS's managing director, told Newsweek aboard a vessel in the Baltic, floating close to the northern German city of Eckernförde, during a demonstration of the GreyShark. "Now, we have a lot of money, but no time."
NATO nations pledged in June to raise "core" defense spending to 3.5 percent of their GDP, which would be funneled into buying new military equipment and other capabilities. Another 1.5 percent would be earmarked for defense-related spending, such as infrastructure the armed forces may need to use.
U.S. President Donald Trump's return brought a long-standing European reliance on U.S. capabilities to an end, sending continental members of the alliance scrambling to pour money into defense, although some involved and observing are unconvinced even the brisk pace of investment in the armed forces is happening quick enough.
Militaries in Europe "need something now," Ciemnyjewski said. "They need something yesterday. "If you are not market available, you do not exist—end of."
Quote:Germany’s push to make its army the strongest in Europe is essential given the threat posed by Russia to the continent where a conflict with Moscow would differ greatly to the attritional warfare currently seen in Ukraine, a military adviser has told Newsweek.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had pledged in May to transform the Bundeswehr (the nation's armed forces), and along with proposed legislation to boost troop numbers revealed last week, Berlin has shown its intentions to boost its military in the coming years.
Nicholas Drummond, a U.K.-based defense strategist, told Newsweek that a bigger German army could transform the security landscape of Europe, whose leaders have warned that Moscow could expand its belligerence beyond Ukraine by the end of the decade.
"It’s very easy to draw the wrong conclusions from the war in Ukraine," Drummond said, referring to slow progress on the front line, adding that a future conflict with a reconstituted Russian armed forces would be "fast paced" with a greater use of air power in the opening weeks.
Europe's Warning About Russia
The European Union’s Defense Readiness 2030 plan to prepare for possible conflict by the end of the decade and proposals by German lawmakers to boost the country’s military spending and troop numbers, highlight the concern over the threat posed by Russia. Polish military chief Wiesław Kukuła is the latest top official to describe this threat, saying that Russia has already started to prepare for war with Poland, following Ukraine.
Drummond told Newsweek it seems likely a peace deal could be agreed in Ukraine in the next 12 to 18 months because neither side can continue, given the diminishment of their capabilities on the front line. But this will raise the question of how long it will take for Russia to rearm and when it might attack again.
While some analysts have said it could take up to 10 years, Drummond believes it could happen more quickly if China, North Korea and Iran decided to help Moscow. "China is producing armored vehicles and missiles at a prodigious rate," he said.
While Drummond noted how the war in Ukraine has been described as "World War I with drones," meaning a static war of attrition often involving trenches, "we would have a very fast-paced maneuverable against Russia if they did attack a NATO country."
"So we would see a much greater use of air power and we would see a much greater use of force in the initial opening weeks of any conflict."
Germany's Future Defense Role
Germany is expected to spend 153 billion euros ($178 billion) a year on defense by 2029, or 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product—which would make it the world's third highest spender, behind the U.S. and China.
Drummond expected the German budget to focus on investment in areas including artillery, munitions and cruise missiles "on a massive scale but I also expect it to invest in air defense."
This could see Germany’s armed forces take on the main mantle of security against future threats to NATO on the continent, especially regarding Russia, following its war on Ukraine.
"A lot of European countries will rely on Germany because Germany has deep pockets and a very large economy," Drummond said. While NATO would fight as a coalition with Anglo-German divisions and multinational forces, "Germany in itself would deliver a significant amount of mass."
Under plans by German lawmakers, the Bundeswehr’s ranks could swell to 260,000 over the next decade from 182,000 troops now. German lawmakers will next month weigh up legislation in which all 18-year-old men must answer questions about whether they can serve from 2026 and from the following year, undergo medical screening to assess their fitness. For women over 18 these questionnaires will be voluntary.
Rafael Loss, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told Newsweek the German government is pursuing three areas to satisfy the NATO capability targets and implement Germany's allotment of NATO's defense plans.
These are recruitment and retention of personnel, procurement, and infrastructure. "What Germany decides to do is very closely tied to what the NATO defense plans and capability targets," Loss said.
"By and large, Germans support this kind of growth trajectory for the armed forces. They also support very much Germany's leading role in the EU and NATO," said Loss. "It would not be Germany leading Europe, but a collective of important countries, including Germany, going ahead to bring others along."
ASIA
Quote:A nonprofit news organization that is funded entirely by the U.S. government began selling off a large amount of its equipment on a public auction site – with many items being sold for pennies on the dollar.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) receives about $60 million a year from American taxpayers to produce news in Asia. The organization said it was suspending operations due to a lapse in funding during the government shutdown.
But while its website went dark, Fox News discovered that RFA had quietly begun selling off major portions of its expensive broadcast gear, including HD cameras, teleprompters, lenses and even office refrigerators.
Listings on a public auction site, Rasmus Auctions, show RFA-branded broadcast gear is being offered at fire sale prices.
Some high-definition cameras are for sale for less than a dollar, teleprompters for 90 cents, professional lenses for under a dollar and a refrigerator listed for just 20 cents.
In total, more than a thousand pieces of equipment were offered for sale, which has sparked outrage.
California Congressman Darrell Issa, who had been working to restore RFA’s funding, called the online auction a betrayal to American taxpayers.
"I’ve never seen such belligerence by an organization that gets a hundred percent of its money from the U.S. government," Issa said. "Lenses you’d pay thousands of dollars for are being sold for pennies. It’s clear they’re liquidating assets out of spite."
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Radio Free Asia blamed the Trump administration’s earlier budget cuts.
They also pointed at the shutdown for forcing the organization to make difficult financial choices.
"The Administration’s unlawful termination and disruption of RFA’s timely funding, followed by an extended government shutdown, has forced the company to drastically reduce operational costs to set up for long-term success," the statement read.
"Shedding equipment we can no longer use, while retaining key personnel and assets, responsibly positions RFA to continue editorial operations that hold the Chinese Communist Party and other authoritarian governments to account," RFA said.
MIDDLE EAST
Quote:President Trump on Tuesday announced that the US will designate Saudi Arabia as a “major non-NATO ally” during his remarks at a black-tie dinner in honor of the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“We’re taking our military cooperation to even greater heights by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, which is something that is very important to them,” Trump said, noting that the designation came shortly after he and bin Salman signed “a historic strategic defense agreement.”
“I’m just telling you now for the first time, because I wanted to keep a little secret for tonight,” Trump told the crown prince from the stage. “I just heard him say, ‘Oh, that’s nice.’ That’s another point you won today.”
Saudi Arabia will become the 20th nation to hold major non-NATO ally status, according to the State Department.
Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia have previously been designated as such. Taiwan is also treated as a major non-NATO ally but does not formally hold the title.
Major non-NATO ally status is viewed as a powerful symbol of the strength of the relationship between the US and a foreign partner.
It provides the designee with military and economic privileges, including eligibility to purchase “depleted uranium ammunition,” obtain certain military supply loans and engage in “cooperative research and development projects on defense equipment and munitions,” according to the State Department.
The designation also allows the US to stockpile warfighting equipment in the country outside a US military facility.
Meanwhile, the defense agreement brokered by Trump and bin Salman “reinforc[es] America’s role as a regional security enabler, enhancing our US military partnerships to better allow partners to deter and defeat threats,” the White House said in a statement.
Quote:WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia allowed US citizen Saad Almadi to return home to Florida as President Trump lavishly hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a second day in DC.
Almadi, 75, was trapped in Riyadh for four years after he was arrested in late 2021 and initially sentenced to 19 years in prison for tweeting mild criticisms of the Saudi government from his home in Boca Raton.
The retired engineer was released from prison in 2023 but banned from leaving the country — as authorities dangled the threat of another trial and return to prison.
Almadi was airborne from Riyadh as of 12:15 ET Wednesday, according to his family — 13 minutes after Trump and the crown prince, widely known by his initials MBS, appeared on stage at an investment forum in Washington.
“Our family is overjoyed that, after four long years, our father, Saad Almadi, is finally on his way home to the United States!” his family said in a statement.
“This day would not have been possible without President Donald Trump and the tireless efforts of his administration. We are deeply grateful to Dr. Sebastian Gorka and the team at the National Security Council, as well as everyone at the State Department.”
The family statement, written by Almadi’s son and chief advocate Ibrahim Almadi, also credited The Post’s “courageous” coverage of the case and thanked non-profits and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for supporting the elder Almadi’s cause.
Trump’s precise involvement in pleading for Almadi’s release was not immediately clear.
The president said he was interested in the matter when asked by The Post in May, shortly after returning from a trip to the kingdom.
“I haven’t heard about it at all. If you give me the information on the plane — are you on the plane? Give me the information. I’ll see what I can do,” Trump told The Post.
“What did he do, supposedly?” Trump asked, before saying upon hearing the details, “Let me take a look.”
Quote:TEL AVIV — The first-ever Miss Palestine contestant in the Miss Universe pageant married the son of Hamas’ most-wanted prisoner, Marwan Barghouti, and even named a child after him, The Post has learned.
Nadeen Ayoub — who claims to be a 27-year-old US and Canadian citizen living in Dubai — is competing this week to represent Palestine, a territory the US and Israel don’t even recognize as a sovereign state.
Strutting through preliminary rounds ahead of the pending pageant, Ayoub has kept most of her personal life under wraps — until now.
Years-old screenshots and social media posts obtained by The Post show she took pains to hide that she was once married to Sharaf Barghouti — son of the infamous Fatah leader serving five life sentences in Israel for orchestrating terror attacks that killed five people in 2001 and 2002.
The convicted murderer’s name resurfaced last month when Hamas demanded his release in hostage-exchange negotiations with Israel — a request the Jewish state flatly refused, citing his participation in the first intifada, leadership in the second, convictions in five terror-related murders and founding of the West Bank’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
A secret life
Social media posts show Ayoub tied the knot with Sharaf Barghouti in 2016, later welcoming a son named Marwan three years later — seemingly in tribute to the convicted killer.
However, it is unclear if the pair remains married. A family member reached for comment confirmed to The Post that the two had been married, but denied knowledge of their current status.
Photos reviewed by The Post show the beauty queen cozying up with her husband and posing alongside Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa — a prominent Fatah figure herself. She also appears in photos published by Palestinian outlet Panet.il with Fadwa and other members of the Barghouti clan.
The Post also reviewed conversations with individuals who know her and said they attended the wedding. It is unclear whether Ayoub is even still present in the baby’s life, as most of her connections to the family have been meticulously scrubbed from the internet.
But the wannabe beauty queen once shared glimpses of her married life on since-deleted Instagram accounts under the handles @nadeenayo and @nadeenayfitness, posting “surprise flowers from my groom-to-be” and tagging Sharaf’s page.
She is a self-proclaimed fitness instructor, and an investigation by The Post revealed she taught workout classes at the Ramallah-based gym “IQ Fitness,” which is owned by Qassam Barghouthi, another of the convicted terrorist’s sons who also spent time in Israeli prison before he was acquitted of carrying out an ambush and four attempted killings.
There a many photos of Ayoub on the gym’s Instagram and Facebook pages, with at least one post referring to her as “Nadeen Barghouti.”
Quote:Israel launched a new wave of airstrikes against Hamas on Thursday, reportedly killing 27 people, after the IDF accused the terror group of testing the military border zone “daily” — all actions that threaten to undo the fragile cease-fire in Gaza, mediators warned.
Fighting allegedly broke out between Hamas fighters and Israeli soldiers operating in Khan Younis along the so-called “Yellow Line” — the border that the Israeli Defense Forces pulled back to in Gaza — resulting in the Jewish state launching a fresh wave of bombardments in the Strip.
The assault killed at least 27 people and injured another 88, bringing the total Palestinian death toll since last month’s cease-fire came into effect to 307, according to the Hamas-controlled local ministry of health, whose estimates do not differentiate between terrorists and civilians.
Qatari mediators who helped put the cease-fire deal together are alarmed by the repeated fighting in Gaza and deadly airstrikes, which they warned could undo the already strained path to peace.
Qatar specifically condemned the “brutal attacks by the Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip… and considers them a dangerous escalation that threatens to undermine the cease-fire agreement,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.
Doha also called for the international community to unite to preserve the cease-fire and ensure that all-out war does not erupt inside Gaza.
The IDF, which still controls about 53% of Gaza, has accused Hamas of repeatedly violating the terms of President Trump’s cease-fire deal by going past the Yellow Line, a border demarcated by literal yellow blocks and paint that splits the Palestinian enclave in half.
Since the cease-fire went into effect on Oct. 10, Hamas has allegedly trespassed the military border daily and engaged in multiple fights with IDF troops, allegations the terror group has denied.
There have been at least three major conflicts along the Yellow Line since the cease-fire began, including one that saw two IDF soldiers killed, with Israel retaliating with airstrikes every time.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, who operates at a base near the Yellow Line inside Gaza City, said there have been hundreds of Hamas violations during the cease-fire.
AFRICA
Quote:Gunmen kidnapped 25 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria’s Kebbi State and killed at least one staffer, authorities said Monday.
The schoolgirls were taken around 4 a.m., and no group immediately claimed responsibility for the incident.
Police spokesperson Nafi'u Abubakar Kotarkoshi told The Associated Press the gunmen had "sophisticated weapons" and exchanged fire with guards before abducting the girls.
"A combined team is currently combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation aimed at recovering the abducted students and arresting the perpetrators," he said, adding that one person was killed and another was injured.
"Our security agencies are treating this as a kidnapping carried out by organized criminal groups that operate for profit. Whether they have any ideological ties is still under investigation, and we do not want to fuel speculation while the facts are being verified," Nigerian Information Minister Mohamed Idris told Fox News Digital.
"This is not about religion Muslim or Christian. These criminals attack anyone they believe is vulnerable. Our priority is the protection of all Nigerian children, and we remain fully committed to dismantling these networks and holding every perpetrator accountable."
Abdulkarim Abdullahi Maga, a resident who said his daughter and granddaughter were abducted in the raid, told the AP that the attackers entered the school with motorcycles.
"They first went straight to the teacher’s house and killed him before killing the guard," said Maga.
Idris told Fox News Digital that the government is working to ensure the girls are safely returned home and the perpetrators are brought to justice.
"The Federal Government expresses deep concern and solidarity with the families of the female students abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Maga, in Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State. We share in their pain and are firmly committed to bringing the girls home safely," he said.
"President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reiterated that the protection of every Nigerian especially schoolchildren remains a solemn responsibility of the State. The government condemns the reprehensible attack on innocent students and the killing of school officials who were carrying out their noble duty."
Quote:Gunmen reportedly attacked a church in Nigeria, killing at least two people and kidnapping the pastor and some worshippers, according to Reuters, which cited police and witnesses.
The attack occurred on Tuesday evening in Eruku, a town in central Nigeria's Kwara State. Reuters said it reviewed and verified a video from a local news outlet showing gunfire interrupting a service at Christ Apostolic Church and forcing parishioners to take cover. The outlet noted that in the video, armed men are seen entering and taking worshippers' belongings as gunshots ring out.
AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the governor of Kwara State, Nigeria, reportedly asked for the immediate deployment of security operatives after the attack, Reuters reported citing the governor's spokesperson.
The attack comes just days after gunmen kidnapped 25 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria’s Kebbi State and killed at least one staffer. Police spokesperson Nafi'u Abubakar Kotarkoshi told The Associated Press the gunmen had "sophisticated weapons" and exchanged fire with guards before abducting the girls.
"A combined team is currently combing suspected escape routes and surrounding forests in a coordinated search and rescue operation aimed at recovering the abducted students and arresting the perpetrators," he said, adding that one person was killed and another was injured.
President Donald Trump has designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern amid escalating violence against Christians in the West African nation.
On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz held an event highlighting the ongoing violence in Nigeria. During the event, Waltz called the killings of Christians in Nigeria "genocide wearing the mask of chaos."
"There is a body of evidence, and you are going to hear that from our experts today that paints a very grim picture of disproportionate suffering among Christians, where, again, families are torn apart, clergy is repeatedly assassinated, and entire congregations, church congregations," Waltz said.
"Folks, we have an entire faith that is being erased, one bullet at a time, one torched Bible at a time," he added.
Rap superstar Nicki Minaj, who has been vocal about her support for the Trump administration's efforts to combat the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, spoke at Waltz's event.
"In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted, driven from their homes and killed. Churches have been burned. Families have been torn apart, and entire communities live in fear constantly, simply because of how they pray," Minaj said.
"Sadly, this problem is not only a growing problem in Nigeria, but also in so many other countries across the world, and it demands urgent action," the rap mogul said. "And I want to be clear, protecting Christians in Nigeria is not about taking sides or dividing people. It is about uniting humanity."
Quote:Gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped several students and staff from a Catholic school early Friday, marking the latest attack on a Christian institution.
Nigerian news outlet Arise TV said 52 children were abducted from St. Mary's School. The Catholic institution is in Agwara local government’s Papiri community, according to The Associated Press, which cited Abubakar Usman, the secretary to the Niger state government. The outlet added that Usman did not specify how many children were kidnapped in the attack.
The Niger State Police Command said military and security forces were deployed to the area where the attack took place in the early hours of Friday, the AP reported. Additionally, the Niger State Police Command said St. Mary's educates students ages 12–17.
A security staffer was "badly shot" in the attack, according to the AP which cited a statement issued by the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora.
Following the attack, Usman released a statement condemning the abductions and stating that St. Mary's made the decision to reopen despite prior security intelligence warning of increased threats, according to Arise TV.
"Regrettably, St. Mary’s School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk," the statement read.
The attack at St. Mary's follows a similar incident earlier this week in which armed attackers kidnapped 25 girls from a boarding school in Nigeria’s Kebbi State and killed at least one staffer. The search for the abducted schoolgirls is still underway.
On Wednesday, gunmen attacked the Christ Apostolic Church, killing at least two people and abducting the pastor and 38 worshippers, according to Reuters. In a video of the attack, which was reviewed and verified by Reuters, armed men are seen entering the church and taking worshippers' belongings as gunshots ring out. The outlet later reported that a church official said the gunmen demanded a ransom of 100 million naira (roughly $69,000) per worshipper.
Nigeria has seen a series of attacks on Christians, prompting President Donald Trump to declare the West African nation a "country of particular concern" over the persecution of Christians. However, the Nigerian government has disputed the U.S.'s claims.
On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz held an event highlighting the ongoing violence in Nigeria. During the event, Waltz called the killings of Christians in Nigeria "genocide wearing the mask of chaos."
"Folks, we have an entire faith that is being erased, one bullet at a time, one torched Bible at a time," Waltz said.
And keep in mind what happened to an American missionary in that very same country last month.
Quote:GOMA, Congo — An Islamic State-backed rebel group killed 89 people during attacks on multiple villages in eastern Congo, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country said Friday.
In the village of Byambwe, around 60 kilometers (37 miles) west of the town of Lubero, the Allied Democratic Forces killed at least 17 people in a hospital on Saturday, including 11 women receiving care in a maternity ward.
“Violence committed against civilians, including in medical facilities, may constitute war crimes and serious violations of international humanitarian law,” said Bruno Lemarquis, the acting head of the U.N. mission, known as MONUSCO.
The attacks by the ADF took place in the Bapere and Baswaghga local administrative areas, in the Lubero territory in North Kivu province, between Nov. 13 and Nov. 19, the mission said in a statement.
The statement said several other communities were also attacked, leading to more abductions, the looting of medical supplies, and the burning of homes and property in areas already facing severe humanitarian needs.
Armed groups including the ADF and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have carried out several deadly attacks in eastern Congo.
The ADF, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2019, operates along the border with Uganda and often targets civilians.
In August, ADF fighters killed at least 52 people during several attacks in the same week, according to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo.
The group also killed nearly 40 people in Ituri province in July, when it stormed a Catholic church during a vigil and opened fire on worshippers, including many women and children.
The ADF was formed by disparate small groups in Uganda in the late 1990s following discontent with President Yoweri Museveni. In 2002, following Ugandan military strikes, the group moved to neighboring Congo and has been blamed for the killings of thousands of civilians.
LATIN AMERICA
Quote:URUAPAN, Mexico — Authorities on Friday arrested seven bodyguards suspected of being involved in the assassination earlier this month of a popular mayor in west-central Mexico who they were supposed to be protecting.
The Associated Press saw at least five of the suspects arrested by state and federal authorities in Uruapan on Friday, steps away from the site where Mayor Carlos Manzo was killed during Day of the Dead festivities on Nov. 1.
Later, the Michoacan state prosecutor’s office said in a brief statement that seven public officials, who it did not identify, were arrested for “their likely participation in aggravated homicide.”
An official familiar with the operation said all seven had been bodyguards for Manzo. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it.
Soldiers, National Guard troops and state agents led the suspects out of a city building Friday beside the central plaza where a teenage gunman had shot Manzo. Attention had immediately turned toward Manzo’s large security detail that had failed to stop the lone gunman and suspicion only grew when it appeared that the gunman had been shot dead by members of the security detail after they had him on the ground.
On Wednesday, Mexican authorities announced the arrest of a man they said was involved in planning and ordering the killing. They connected the plot to the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the organized crime groups operating in Michoacan.
Manzo’s wife was sworn in as Uruapan’s mayor following his killing.
On Friday, members of Manzo’s — and now his wife’s — team recorded the arrests, some while crying as they watched colleagues hauled off. Two people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety said that among those arrested were member’s of Manzo’s inner circle.
Uruapan’s central plaza is still filled with candles in tribute to the slain politician, who had been outspoken against organized crime’s grip. Notes expressing sadness about Manzo’s slaying and demanding justice still hang around the plaza.
The mayor’s killing brought renewed pressure on President Claudia Sheinbaum to adjust her security strategy. Days later she announced Plan Michoacan, which while heavy on spending for social programs, also included having 10,000 troops spread out across the state to get control of the various criminal organizations operating there.
Quote:American troops installed signs on a beach in northeast Mexico declaring the area "restricted" by the U.S. Department of Defense, it has been reported.
Video on social media appears to show Mexican marines removing the signs purportedly at Playa Bagdad, close to where the Rio Grande river flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
The signs warned that unauthorized access or photography was not permitted, and that "if you are found here, you may be detained and searched."
Newsweek contacted the Pentagon by email outside of regular working hours.
Why It Matters
The incident comes amid heightened tensions between Mexico and the U.S in an area where President Donald Trump has used an executive order to rewrite the map by renaming the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum this week ruled out allowing U.S. strikes against cartels on Mexican soil, after Trump had said he would do what it takes to stop drugs entering the U.S, having ordered a military buildup in the Caribbean that is raising jitters throughout Latin America.
What To Know
The U.S. and Mexico investigated what could have been an American incursion on to its southern neighbor after men arrived in a boat at a beach in the northeast of the country and installed signs that it was restricted U.S. Department of Defense land.
The signs said in English and Spanish, "Warning: Restricted Area" by order of "the commander" prohibiting unauthorized access, photography or drawings of the area.
Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said its navy removed the signs, placed at Playa Bagdad, Tamaulipas, in scenes widely shared on social media.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico shared a comment from the Pentagon that contractors putting up signs to mark the "National Defense Area III" had placed the signs at the mouth of the Rio Grande.
But changes in water depth and topography "altered the perception of the international boundary’s location," the statement said and that the Mexican government removed six signs "based on their perception of the international boundary’s location."
Sheinbaum said that contractors working for a U.S. government entity had placed the signs by mistake. The Pentagon said contractors would coordinate with appropriate agencies "to avoid confusion in the future," The Associated Press reported.
She also announced the involvement of the International Boundary and Water Commission, (IBWC) which determines the border between the two neighbors.
What People Are Saying
Mexico’s foreign ministry in a statement: "During initial consultations by the Consulate of Mexico in Brownsville, officials were not able to confirm that any U.S. authority had put up the signs."
Stephen Mumme, a professor at Colorado State University, told Al Jazeera: "The agency or contractor who placed the signs is in clear violation of the 1970 Boundary Treaty" which set the boundary "at middle of the most substantial and deepest channel of the river as it enters the Gulf of Mexico."
Quote:Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the United States is experiencing economic benefits as a result of President Donald Trump's peace deals, and that oil prices could fall further if "something happens down in Venezuela."
Speaking to Fox News' Laura Ingraham about the economy on Thursday, Bessent said: "The peace deals; we are seeing a peace dividend from that. And I think there's a very good chance that if something happens with Russia-Ukraine, if something happens down in Venezuela, that we could really see oil prices go down even more.
"Oil and gasoline prices are down substantially under President Trump—and that is really the key to affordability is lower energy. And energy goes into food prices."
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Department of the Treasury, via email outside of office hours, to ask what Bessent means by this.
Why It Matters
The U.S. faces mounting tensions with Venezuela after carrying out more than 20 military strikes on alleged narco-boats carrying drugs in the Caribbean. The U.S. has also moved major military assets to the region.
Rising tension between the United States and Venezuela has implications for both global oil markets and U.S. domestic energy prices. Venezuela, despite an ongoing economic crisis, remains a significant oil exporter.
What To Know
Bessent was speaking to Ingraham about the economy, arguing that oil prices and their knock-on effects on energy could change how young people feel about the economy.
"Oil and gasoline prices are down substantially under President Trump—and that is really the key to affordability is lower energy," he said. "And energy goes into food prices."
He added: "I am very confident about job growth and the momentum that we've got for next year. And I think what it is going to take is for people to see, that the president has done peace deals, trade deals and tax deals."
The United States has conducted over 20 military strikes on suspected drug-carrying vessels linked to Venezuela in the Caribbean and has deployed additional military assets to the region.
The intent, according to U.S. officials, is to counteract "narcoterrorism" and reduce criminal activity.
President Nicolás Maduro has said he is open to direct talks with the Trump administration while condemning U.S. actions as attempts at regime change and resource control.
Maduro denied U.S. accusations of cartel leadership and said sanctions were a primary cause of Venezuela's ongoing economic and inflation crisis.
What People Are Saying
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told One America Network in an interview Thursday: "We know exactly who we are targeting, why we are targeting them, what they are carrying. The United States can track and hunt cells and narco-terrorists better than any country in the world."
"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.
![[Image: SP1-Scripter.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Scripter.png)
![[Image: SP1-Writer.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Writer.png)
![[Image: SP1-Poet.png]](https://www.save-point.org/images/userbars/SP1-Poet.png)
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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
