News of the World
Yesterday, 03:00 PM
(This post was last modified: 6 hours ago by DerVVulfman.)
Missed Last Week:
DOJ charges three with ‘wide-ranging conspiracy’
to smuggle migrant kids to the US
Trump admin has found 146K migrant kids
who went missing under Biden: DHS chief
Following the IRGC's claim of closing the Strait after Israel returned fire against Hezbollah rocketfire.
Fed-up Trump threatens to ‘blow the s–t’ out of Iran
— prompting Tehran to storm out of US peace talks
Iran Mediators Offer Plan to Ease Lebanon, Hormuz Tensions
Alleged ‘ringleader’ behind White House UFC attack plot
ID’d as illegal immigrant granted Dreamer status under Obama
15 Antifa radicals indicted, 12 arrested
in sweeping federal probe into Minneapolis anti-ICE operations
Feds announce 15 arrests in alleged $1.4 million
public benefits fraud crackdown in Massachusetts
Alleged $38M adult day care scam busted in Brooklyn
— snaring Pakistani community leaders who cozied up to Dems
PETA, animal rights groups praise Trump admin
for phasing out 'cruel tests on dogs' and other animals
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer set to resign
after Labour Party turns on him
DOJ charges three with ‘wide-ranging conspiracy’
to smuggle migrant kids to the US
by Josh Christenson - NYPost
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced indictments Thursday of three illegal immigrants who sought to smuggle more than a dozen children into the US by “exploiting the loopholes created by the [Biden] administration.”
The Guatemalan nationals “took part in a wide-ranging conspiracy” that included submitting bogus sponsor applications in order to take custody of unaccompanied migrant kids, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters.
Two of the defendants, Maritbza Azucena Cahuec Coc, 38, and her brother Carlos Agustin Cahuec Coc, 33, enlisted the third defendant, Gladys Marina Caal Chen, 20, in the conspiracy after she was fraudulently sponsored and smuggled into the country.
Between December 2020 and October 2023, Maritza and Carlos Cahuec Coc scammed the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) by applying to have the kids stay with them.
A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said Maritza Cahuec Coc used false birth certificates, Guatemalan consular ID cards and photos of purported relatives’ IDs to deceive authorities.
“This was a business,” Duva said, noting that federal agents executing a search warrant at a Cleveland, Ohio home last month found Chen living there with other adults and at least four kids.
“Paychecks addressed and made payable to others including at least one of the [unaccompanied minors] sponsored by Maritza Cahuec Coc were deposited into Maritza Cahuec Coc’s and a co-conspirator’s bank accounts,” according to the DOJ.
Maritza Cahuec Coc was charged with conspiring to defraud the US, harboring aliens and aggravated identity theft among other charges. She faces up to 17 years in prison upon conviction.
Carlos Cahuec Coc was charged with conspiring to bring aliens into the US illegally for financial gain and facus up to 10 years in prison.
Chen was charged with making false statements to the feds when applying to be a child migrant sponsor and faces up to five years in prison.
The Biden administration lost track of more than 300,000 migrant children who entered the country between 2021 and 2024, a Department of Homeland Security watchdog report previously found.
“Oftentimes, the children were abused, assaulted and certainly exploited,” Blanche said. “In some cases, individuals would sponsor multiple children, which required them to lie on to government personnel and on government forms claiming they were close relatives when in fact they were not.”
“They would use fake or stolen identities and make other false claims during the application process in order to obtain custody of the children,” he added.
The DOJ has since identified more than 15,500 so-called “super-sponsor” cases similar to those of Maritza and Carlos Cahuec Coc.
One involved a 27-year-old man, also from Guatemala, who was sentenced Thursday for fraudulently claiming to be the sponsor of a 14-year-old girl whom he went on to repeatedly sexually assault.
That migrant, Juan Tiul Xi, earned eight years in state prison, with a 26-month federal prison sentence to follow consecutively.
“These two cases — while only two — help explain how what was going on is really the stuff of nightmares,” Blanche said.
The Guatemalan nationals “took part in a wide-ranging conspiracy” that included submitting bogus sponsor applications in order to take custody of unaccompanied migrant kids, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters.
Two of the defendants, Maritbza Azucena Cahuec Coc, 38, and her brother Carlos Agustin Cahuec Coc, 33, enlisted the third defendant, Gladys Marina Caal Chen, 20, in the conspiracy after she was fraudulently sponsored and smuggled into the country.
Between December 2020 and October 2023, Maritza and Carlos Cahuec Coc scammed the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) by applying to have the kids stay with them.
A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Criminal Division, said Maritza Cahuec Coc used false birth certificates, Guatemalan consular ID cards and photos of purported relatives’ IDs to deceive authorities.
“This was a business,” Duva said, noting that federal agents executing a search warrant at a Cleveland, Ohio home last month found Chen living there with other adults and at least four kids.
“Paychecks addressed and made payable to others including at least one of the [unaccompanied minors] sponsored by Maritza Cahuec Coc were deposited into Maritza Cahuec Coc’s and a co-conspirator’s bank accounts,” according to the DOJ.
Maritza Cahuec Coc was charged with conspiring to defraud the US, harboring aliens and aggravated identity theft among other charges. She faces up to 17 years in prison upon conviction.
Carlos Cahuec Coc was charged with conspiring to bring aliens into the US illegally for financial gain and facus up to 10 years in prison.
Chen was charged with making false statements to the feds when applying to be a child migrant sponsor and faces up to five years in prison.
The Biden administration lost track of more than 300,000 migrant children who entered the country between 2021 and 2024, a Department of Homeland Security watchdog report previously found.
“Oftentimes, the children were abused, assaulted and certainly exploited,” Blanche said. “In some cases, individuals would sponsor multiple children, which required them to lie on to government personnel and on government forms claiming they were close relatives when in fact they were not.”
“They would use fake or stolen identities and make other false claims during the application process in order to obtain custody of the children,” he added.
The DOJ has since identified more than 15,500 so-called “super-sponsor” cases similar to those of Maritza and Carlos Cahuec Coc.
One involved a 27-year-old man, also from Guatemala, who was sentenced Thursday for fraudulently claiming to be the sponsor of a 14-year-old girl whom he went on to repeatedly sexually assault.
That migrant, Juan Tiul Xi, earned eight years in state prison, with a 26-month federal prison sentence to follow consecutively.
“These two cases — while only two — help explain how what was going on is really the stuff of nightmares,” Blanche said.
Trump admin has found 146K migrant kids
who went missing under Biden: DHS chief
by Josh Christenson - NYPost
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Thursday that the Trump administration has found at least 146,000 migrant children that were unaccounted for during the Biden administration.
A total of 450,000 went missing under former President Joe Biden — and “nearly 300,000” are still unaccounted for, Mullin said at a news conference.
“We’re investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped 6[00] to 700 times,” he added. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you have kids. You don’t have kids. I don’t care if you’re a liberal, you’re independent, you’re a Democrat. You’re Republican.
“If you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you? Who are you?” Mullin fumed. “And do you know where we’re finding the most of them: sanctuary cities.”
Major metropolitan centers like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles have refused to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement as a result of their sanctuary policies.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General revealed the hundreds of thousands of missing migrant kids in an August 2024 report.
Between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, more than 448,000 unaccompanied minors were in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s custody before being transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services for resettlement with domestic sponsors, the IG’s report found.
Of those, 291,000 migrant children were never issued notices to appear in federal immigration courts after being released from HHS.
And 32,000 never showed up at all for their scheduled court dates.
The rest are presumed to be missing.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in the same press conference announced charges against three Guatemalan nationals in Ohio who had submitted false information to serve as sponsors for kids and get payouts.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) applauded Mullin and Blanche for announcing the efforts to prosecute those who abused the migrant-sponsor program and let hundreds of thousands of kids go missing.
“I spent YRS sharing whistleblower evidence of migrant child trafficking w the Biden admin while my Democrat colleagues turned a blind eye,” Grassley posted on X.
Trump’s HHS has also prioritized investigating tens of thousands of leads about migrant kids abused by sex predators or trafficked by gangs like MS-13 due to lax sponsor vetting.
Records from HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement previously revealed that Biden-era officials ignored obvious safety risks — with then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra likening the ideal turnover rate of the kids’ release to an “assembly line,” according to The New York Times.
A total of 450,000 went missing under former President Joe Biden — and “nearly 300,000” are still unaccounted for, Mullin said at a news conference.
“We’re investigating reports to where some of these kids claim that they were raped 6[00] to 700 times,” he added. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you have kids. You don’t have kids. I don’t care if you’re a liberal, you’re independent, you’re a Democrat. You’re Republican.
“If you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you? Who are you?” Mullin fumed. “And do you know where we’re finding the most of them: sanctuary cities.”
Major metropolitan centers like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles have refused to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement as a result of their sanctuary policies.
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General revealed the hundreds of thousands of missing migrant kids in an August 2024 report.
Between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, more than 448,000 unaccompanied minors were in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s custody before being transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services for resettlement with domestic sponsors, the IG’s report found.
Of those, 291,000 migrant children were never issued notices to appear in federal immigration courts after being released from HHS.
And 32,000 never showed up at all for their scheduled court dates.
The rest are presumed to be missing.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in the same press conference announced charges against three Guatemalan nationals in Ohio who had submitted false information to serve as sponsors for kids and get payouts.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) applauded Mullin and Blanche for announcing the efforts to prosecute those who abused the migrant-sponsor program and let hundreds of thousands of kids go missing.
“I spent YRS sharing whistleblower evidence of migrant child trafficking w the Biden admin while my Democrat colleagues turned a blind eye,” Grassley posted on X.
Trump’s HHS has also prioritized investigating tens of thousands of leads about migrant kids abused by sex predators or trafficked by gangs like MS-13 due to lax sponsor vetting.
Records from HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement previously revealed that Biden-era officials ignored obvious safety risks — with then-HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra likening the ideal turnover rate of the kids’ release to an “assembly line,” according to The New York Times.
Following the IRGC's claim of closing the Strait after Israel returned fire against Hezbollah rocketfire.
Fed-up Trump threatens to ‘blow the s–t’ out of Iran
— prompting Tehran to storm out of US peace talks
Ronny Reyes - NYPost
Iranian negotiators stormed out of the high-level peace talks with the US in Switzerland on Sunday after a frustrated President Trump unleashed his fury on the regime — threatening to seize the Strait of Hormuz and “blow the s–t out of them.”
The talks were abandoned after just 80 minutes when the discussions entered a “difficult phase” following “an insulting message by the US president,” Iran’s state news agency reported.
Vice President JD Vance, who was spearheading the negotiations, had earlier said the US hoped to “turn over a new leaf” with the Islamic Republic.
The talks in the Qatari-owned mountaintop resort of Buergenstock in Switzerland were the first to be held under the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreed a week ago.
But hopes of progress were swiftly dashed, and the diplomatic efforts were cut off when Trump, who had been criticized for being too soft on the regime with the MOU, warned that the US would hammer Iran if it didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz and rein in its terrorist proxies.
The president’s most explicit warning was aimed directly at Tehran’s diplomats in Switzerland.
“You won’t even make it back to your f–king country,” an irate Trump told Iran’s leaders, according to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst.
“You close it, and you won’t have a country,” he said of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We may take over the Strait, if we have to. I’ll blow the s–t out of them.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had claimed Saturday it was shutting down the critical waterway due to the continued fighting in Lebanon.
Iran also came into peace talks on Sunday wanting to prioritize discussions about Lebanon, where Israel’s military has been fighting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
The talks were supposed to address Tehran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the strait; however, Iran said there could be no start to the next phase of negotiations until the fighting ends, the state news agency reported.
Trump also took to Truth Social to let out his rage, blaming Iran for the fighting and demanding that the regime keep Hezbollah in line.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,” the president wrote. “If they don’t we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
The Islamic Republic’s chief negotiator and head of Iran’s parliament, Mohammed Ghalibaf, slammed Trump’s threats as an act of “desperation.”
“We don’t take the Americans’ threats seriously,” he wrote on X.
Ghalibaf went on to warn the president that any force would be met in kind.
“They had better watch their statements,” he hit back.
“Our armed forces are ready to respond in another way. Whatever they say, we are the ones who will act.”
Ghalibaf and another of Iran’s top negotiators, Abbas Araghchi, also refused to participate in a scheduled handshake and joint photo session event with the US team, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
The officials described the photo-op as an American “media show,” with the optics raising worries that the US fumbled the start of the negotiations.
US officials, however, claimed there was no snub and that Iran was merely spreading opportunistic propaganda.
The US delegation in Switzerland was being led by Vance, along with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
A senior US diplomat engaged in the negotiations later downplayed the diplomatic row, insisting that the peace talks remain ongoing.
“The Iranian delegation is still at the negotiating venue and the US delegation expects to continue working through the night,” the official said, adding that the discussions have included “clarifying some of the confusing messaging from Iran on the Strait and building deconfliction mechanisms to ensure the Strait will remain fully open.”
“We have also worked through deconfliction mechanisms and enforcing the ceasefire in southern Lebanon,” the diplomat said.
The talks Sunday would be used “as a starting point for ongoing technical talks going forward,” the official added.
Still, Morgan Ortagus, the deputy US special envoy to the Middle East, said the president’s latest threats mark a major shift in how Trump will proceed with the peace talks, after the notable concessions the US appeared willing to make last week to end the war.
“This is a game-changing announcement by the President as it relates to his policies towards Iran — if Hezbollah strikes, the President is now vowing he will hold Iran responsible and will hit them in return,” Ortagus wrote on X.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has been pushing for Trump to be tougher on Iran, agreed that the onus should be on Iran to forge peace in Lebanon or face the consequences.
Graham also predicted that the peace talks wouldn’t be fruitful.
“I’d rather try diplomacy than take it off the table,” the lawmaker told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“If you don’t have a diplomatic path through the MOU, then you have to go to war or some other form of coercion. Let’s try this. Let’s try a diplomatic solution. I think it’s going to fail.” he added.
He added that he believes Trump will ultimately take control of the Strait of Hormuz by force and “obliterate” Iran if the talks collapse.
“I spent four-and-a-half hours with President Trump Friday. Here’s what I think will happen next. If this deal fails, President Trump is going to take the Strait of Hormuz over by force,” the hawkish senator explained.
Along with the threats, President Trump himself suggested the US could take full control of the Strait of Hormuz and impose its own “Guardian Angel” toll system after repeatedly warning Iran not to charge fees for passage.
“We may take over the Strait, if we have to. If they don’t make a deal, we’ll collect tolls,” he said, not specifying who the US will charge.
The threats are a significant escalation after the US-Iran’s MOU all but fell apart last week due to Israel and Hezbollah’s fighting in southern Lebanon.
The conflict led Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, where the Islamic Republic has set up a toll system that it said it wants to implement after the 60-day peace negotiation period.
Earlier reports suggested Tehran would charge up to $2 million each for oil tankers to cross the strait.
The short-lived peace over the weekend allowed 67 ships to go through the Strait on Saturday, with 55 crossing on Friday, according to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
Before the war began, about 20 million barrels of oil sailed through the Strait of Hormuz every day, with more than 130 ships traveling the narrow passage daily.
The talks were abandoned after just 80 minutes when the discussions entered a “difficult phase” following “an insulting message by the US president,” Iran’s state news agency reported.
Vice President JD Vance, who was spearheading the negotiations, had earlier said the US hoped to “turn over a new leaf” with the Islamic Republic.
The talks in the Qatari-owned mountaintop resort of Buergenstock in Switzerland were the first to be held under the terms of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreed a week ago.
But hopes of progress were swiftly dashed, and the diplomatic efforts were cut off when Trump, who had been criticized for being too soft on the regime with the MOU, warned that the US would hammer Iran if it didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz and rein in its terrorist proxies.
The president’s most explicit warning was aimed directly at Tehran’s diplomats in Switzerland.
“You won’t even make it back to your f–king country,” an irate Trump told Iran’s leaders, according to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst.
“You close it, and you won’t have a country,” he said of the Strait of Hormuz.
“We may take over the Strait, if we have to. I’ll blow the s–t out of them.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had claimed Saturday it was shutting down the critical waterway due to the continued fighting in Lebanon.
Iran also came into peace talks on Sunday wanting to prioritize discussions about Lebanon, where Israel’s military has been fighting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group.
The talks were supposed to address Tehran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the strait; however, Iran said there could be no start to the next phase of negotiations until the fighting ends, the state news agency reported.
Trump also took to Truth Social to let out his rage, blaming Iran for the fighting and demanding that the regime keep Hezbollah in line.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,” the president wrote. “If they don’t we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
The Islamic Republic’s chief negotiator and head of Iran’s parliament, Mohammed Ghalibaf, slammed Trump’s threats as an act of “desperation.”
“We don’t take the Americans’ threats seriously,” he wrote on X.
Ghalibaf went on to warn the president that any force would be met in kind.
“They had better watch their statements,” he hit back.
“Our armed forces are ready to respond in another way. Whatever they say, we are the ones who will act.”
Ghalibaf and another of Iran’s top negotiators, Abbas Araghchi, also refused to participate in a scheduled handshake and joint photo session event with the US team, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
The officials described the photo-op as an American “media show,” with the optics raising worries that the US fumbled the start of the negotiations.
US officials, however, claimed there was no snub and that Iran was merely spreading opportunistic propaganda.
The US delegation in Switzerland was being led by Vance, along with special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
A senior US diplomat engaged in the negotiations later downplayed the diplomatic row, insisting that the peace talks remain ongoing.
“The Iranian delegation is still at the negotiating venue and the US delegation expects to continue working through the night,” the official said, adding that the discussions have included “clarifying some of the confusing messaging from Iran on the Strait and building deconfliction mechanisms to ensure the Strait will remain fully open.”
“We have also worked through deconfliction mechanisms and enforcing the ceasefire in southern Lebanon,” the diplomat said.
The talks Sunday would be used “as a starting point for ongoing technical talks going forward,” the official added.
Still, Morgan Ortagus, the deputy US special envoy to the Middle East, said the president’s latest threats mark a major shift in how Trump will proceed with the peace talks, after the notable concessions the US appeared willing to make last week to end the war.
“This is a game-changing announcement by the President as it relates to his policies towards Iran — if Hezbollah strikes, the President is now vowing he will hold Iran responsible and will hit them in return,” Ortagus wrote on X.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has been pushing for Trump to be tougher on Iran, agreed that the onus should be on Iran to forge peace in Lebanon or face the consequences.
Graham also predicted that the peace talks wouldn’t be fruitful.
“I’d rather try diplomacy than take it off the table,” the lawmaker told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“If you don’t have a diplomatic path through the MOU, then you have to go to war or some other form of coercion. Let’s try this. Let’s try a diplomatic solution. I think it’s going to fail.” he added.
He added that he believes Trump will ultimately take control of the Strait of Hormuz by force and “obliterate” Iran if the talks collapse.
“I spent four-and-a-half hours with President Trump Friday. Here’s what I think will happen next. If this deal fails, President Trump is going to take the Strait of Hormuz over by force,” the hawkish senator explained.
Along with the threats, President Trump himself suggested the US could take full control of the Strait of Hormuz and impose its own “Guardian Angel” toll system after repeatedly warning Iran not to charge fees for passage.
“We may take over the Strait, if we have to. If they don’t make a deal, we’ll collect tolls,” he said, not specifying who the US will charge.
The threats are a significant escalation after the US-Iran’s MOU all but fell apart last week due to Israel and Hezbollah’s fighting in southern Lebanon.
The conflict led Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, where the Islamic Republic has set up a toll system that it said it wants to implement after the 60-day peace negotiation period.
Earlier reports suggested Tehran would charge up to $2 million each for oil tankers to cross the strait.
The short-lived peace over the weekend allowed 67 ships to go through the Strait on Saturday, with 55 crossing on Friday, according to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
Before the war began, about 20 million barrels of oil sailed through the Strait of Hormuz every day, with more than 130 ships traveling the narrow passage daily.
Iran Mediators Offer Plan to Ease Lebanon, Hormuz Tensions
Benoit Faucon and Natalie Andrews - Wall Street Journal
BÜRGENSTOCK, Switzerland—Iran and the U.S. agreed to the creation of a mechanism to ensure the termination of military operations in Lebanon, mediators said.
The announcement by Pakistan and Qatar, the two mediators in Iran peace talks, came early Monday local time after President Trump on Sunday had threatened Iran on social media over its support of Lebanese faction Hezbollah. The warning caused a flare up in tensions between the two sides as Vice President JD Vance was in Switzerland for talks with Iran.
The discussions were diverted to focus on fighting between the militant group and Israel that imperiled a peace deal Trump signed last week. The administration had originally wanted the discussion to focus on Iran’s nuclear program.
The president’s threats prompted the Iranian delegation to leave the negotiation venue, Iranian state media reported. But officials from Pakistan and Qatar later resumed their mediation, officials said.
In a statement early Monday, Qatar and Pakistan said a line of communication between Iran and the U.S. had been formed to avoid incidents and enable safe passage for commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
Technical talks will continue for the remainder of the week at the Bürgenstock resort on all issues, the mediators said.
Iranian negotiator Hossein Ghorbanzadeh said separately that progress was being made on sanction waivers on Iran’s oil sales and, through Qatari mediation, the release of frozen assets.
Still, wider negotiations with the U.S. won’t advance unless the war in Lebanon ends, Ghorbanzadeh told the military-affiliated Tasnim news agency.
Last week, Trump and Vance aired the administration’s frustration with Israel after what they called a heavy-handed retaliatory strike nearly derailed their deal with Iran. Israel has argued that it will keep fighting as long as Hezbollah does.
Trump’s new comments Sunday focused on Iran instead.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,” Trump said on social media Sunday. “If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
Iranian state media said Trump’s comments violated the preliminary peace deal signed Wednesday, which bars the two sides from attacking or threatening each other.
The deal opens the Strait of Hormuz, sets up talks on Iran’s nuclear program and calls for an end to the fighting in Lebanon—a key Iranian demand—in its opening paragraph. But fighting over the past two days led Iran to announce Saturday that it had closed the waterway and to say it would focus the talks on resolving the situation in Lebanon.
Fox News reported that Trump, in an interview, said that he had spoken with Iranian officials Saturday night and warned them not to close the strait.
“You close it, and you won’t have a country,” Fox said, quoting Trump. “You won’t even make it back to your f—ing country.”
The Iranian delegation suspended the talks because of Trump’s threats, according to Nour News, which is affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s chief negotiator, said Iran was prepared to respond militarily. “They better be careful with their statements, our armed forces are ready to respond in a different way,” he said on his X account. “Whatever they say, we are the ones who will act.”
In a sign of the high stakes in Switzerland, Vance is leading the talks for the U.S. The two sides began direct talks at the Alpine resort of Bürgenstock after meeting separately with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan, according to Iran’s state media.
Vance struck an upbeat tone after his initial round of talks with Iran on Sunday.
“We’ve already made great progress over just the last few hours, and I expect that we will make additional progress in the hours to come,” Vance said in an impromptu press conference at the site of the negotiations, adding that conditions were improving in Lebanon.
If Iran stops what the vice president called destabilizing activities, the U.S. is ready to “turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran,” Vance said.
Iran’s Ghalibaf was absent from the press conference.
“The Israeli regime continues to violate its commitments,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said earlier Sunday, arguing that the U.S. had been unable or unwilling to rein in its ally. “This issue is the main subject of today’s talks.”
The venue was guarded by a heavy security detail. Visitors were greeted by security forces in flak jackets, some in military camouflage and others toting submachine guns, scattered amid a landscape of green pastures, wooden chalets and snowy peaks. The entrance of the luxurious hotel hosting the negotiations was protected by concrete blocks and metal barricades.
Both sides are under pressure to end the fighting between U.S. ally Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese faction Hezbollah, neither of which are party to the talks.
Last week saw one of the most serious escalations in Lebanon since a ceasefire was reached in April. The fighting had never stopped for long despite the truce, as Israel continued to hold territory in southern Lebanon and the two sides repeatedly clashed. The front was relatively quiet early Sunday.
In response to the latest escalation, Iranian security officials on Saturday said they had closed the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway was still shut Sunday, according to Iran’s military-affiliated Fars news agency. The U.S. military said that the strait remained open and that it would monitor the situation to make sure it didn’t change. Ship tracker Lloyd’s List said some transits continued, albeit at a limited rate.
Iran moved late in the week to set up new procedures for navigating Hormuz, where wartime blockades unsettled a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the country’s military, warned that Hormuz won’t reopen unless the Lebanon ceasefire holds and Iran is allowed to export its oil.
The issues of Hormuz and Lebanon were supposed to be resolved in the memorandum of understanding signed Wednesday. The U.S. agreed to drop its blockade of Iranian ports, and Tehran pledged to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, in a deal that aimed to be a prelude to 60 days of talks to resolve the longstanding, complex dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran postponed plans to send its diplomatic team to the talks Friday, after Israel carried out a round of heavy strikes in retaliation for a Hezbollah drone attack that killed four Israeli soldiers. But Tehran agreed to attend the negotiations late Saturday after announcing they would focus on ending the fighting in Lebanon.
“Iran’s focus is more on Israel’s expansionist policies in Lebanon” than any of the other Middle East theaters where it has influence, said Mohamed Amersi, an Iran expert and member of the Global Advisory Council of the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.
Upon boarding his flight to Switzerland late Saturday, Vance confirmed that a key focus would be to make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire.
The U.S. official said both sides had discussed all elements of the nuclear deal. The U.S. and Iran had been set to discuss what to do with Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which Washington suspects could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.
The Trump administration wants Tehran to destroy or turn over its stockpile and suspend future enrichment. Iran has expressed openness to “downblending” the uranium to lower levels of enrichment inside the country and stop enrichment activities for about a decade. The U.S. wants it to stop for 20 years.
In exchange for concessions, the U.S. is offering extensive sanctions relief. It opened the door to Iranian oil sales and is working on ways to release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian cash as upfront incentives to open the strait and keep Iran at the table.
Tehran planned to raise the issue of freeing up its blocked assets, along with lifting sanctions on its oil exports, foreign ministry spokesman Baghaei said.
The announcement by Pakistan and Qatar, the two mediators in Iran peace talks, came early Monday local time after President Trump on Sunday had threatened Iran on social media over its support of Lebanese faction Hezbollah. The warning caused a flare up in tensions between the two sides as Vice President JD Vance was in Switzerland for talks with Iran.
The discussions were diverted to focus on fighting between the militant group and Israel that imperiled a peace deal Trump signed last week. The administration had originally wanted the discussion to focus on Iran’s nuclear program.
The president’s threats prompted the Iranian delegation to leave the negotiation venue, Iranian state media reported. But officials from Pakistan and Qatar later resumed their mediation, officials said.
In a statement early Monday, Qatar and Pakistan said a line of communication between Iran and the U.S. had been formed to avoid incidents and enable safe passage for commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
Technical talks will continue for the remainder of the week at the Bürgenstock resort on all issues, the mediators said.
Iranian negotiator Hossein Ghorbanzadeh said separately that progress was being made on sanction waivers on Iran’s oil sales and, through Qatari mediation, the release of frozen assets.
Still, wider negotiations with the U.S. won’t advance unless the war in Lebanon ends, Ghorbanzadeh told the military-affiliated Tasnim news agency.
Last week, Trump and Vance aired the administration’s frustration with Israel after what they called a heavy-handed retaliatory strike nearly derailed their deal with Iran. Israel has argued that it will keep fighting as long as Hezbollah does.
Trump’s new comments Sunday focused on Iran instead.
“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble,” Trump said on social media Sunday. “If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!”
Iranian state media said Trump’s comments violated the preliminary peace deal signed Wednesday, which bars the two sides from attacking or threatening each other.
The deal opens the Strait of Hormuz, sets up talks on Iran’s nuclear program and calls for an end to the fighting in Lebanon—a key Iranian demand—in its opening paragraph. But fighting over the past two days led Iran to announce Saturday that it had closed the waterway and to say it would focus the talks on resolving the situation in Lebanon.
Fox News reported that Trump, in an interview, said that he had spoken with Iranian officials Saturday night and warned them not to close the strait.
“You close it, and you won’t have a country,” Fox said, quoting Trump. “You won’t even make it back to your f—ing country.”
The Iranian delegation suspended the talks because of Trump’s threats, according to Nour News, which is affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s chief negotiator, said Iran was prepared to respond militarily. “They better be careful with their statements, our armed forces are ready to respond in a different way,” he said on his X account. “Whatever they say, we are the ones who will act.”
In a sign of the high stakes in Switzerland, Vance is leading the talks for the U.S. The two sides began direct talks at the Alpine resort of Bürgenstock after meeting separately with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan, according to Iran’s state media.
Vance struck an upbeat tone after his initial round of talks with Iran on Sunday.
“We’ve already made great progress over just the last few hours, and I expect that we will make additional progress in the hours to come,” Vance said in an impromptu press conference at the site of the negotiations, adding that conditions were improving in Lebanon.
If Iran stops what the vice president called destabilizing activities, the U.S. is ready to “turn over a new leaf to transform our relationship with the people of Iran,” Vance said.
Iran’s Ghalibaf was absent from the press conference.
“The Israeli regime continues to violate its commitments,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said earlier Sunday, arguing that the U.S. had been unable or unwilling to rein in its ally. “This issue is the main subject of today’s talks.”
The venue was guarded by a heavy security detail. Visitors were greeted by security forces in flak jackets, some in military camouflage and others toting submachine guns, scattered amid a landscape of green pastures, wooden chalets and snowy peaks. The entrance of the luxurious hotel hosting the negotiations was protected by concrete blocks and metal barricades.
Both sides are under pressure to end the fighting between U.S. ally Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese faction Hezbollah, neither of which are party to the talks.
Last week saw one of the most serious escalations in Lebanon since a ceasefire was reached in April. The fighting had never stopped for long despite the truce, as Israel continued to hold territory in southern Lebanon and the two sides repeatedly clashed. The front was relatively quiet early Sunday.
In response to the latest escalation, Iranian security officials on Saturday said they had closed the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway was still shut Sunday, according to Iran’s military-affiliated Fars news agency. The U.S. military said that the strait remained open and that it would monitor the situation to make sure it didn’t change. Ship tracker Lloyd’s List said some transits continued, albeit at a limited rate.
Iran moved late in the week to set up new procedures for navigating Hormuz, where wartime blockades unsettled a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
Iran’s Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the country’s military, warned that Hormuz won’t reopen unless the Lebanon ceasefire holds and Iran is allowed to export its oil.
The issues of Hormuz and Lebanon were supposed to be resolved in the memorandum of understanding signed Wednesday. The U.S. agreed to drop its blockade of Iranian ports, and Tehran pledged to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, in a deal that aimed to be a prelude to 60 days of talks to resolve the longstanding, complex dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran postponed plans to send its diplomatic team to the talks Friday, after Israel carried out a round of heavy strikes in retaliation for a Hezbollah drone attack that killed four Israeli soldiers. But Tehran agreed to attend the negotiations late Saturday after announcing they would focus on ending the fighting in Lebanon.
“Iran’s focus is more on Israel’s expansionist policies in Lebanon” than any of the other Middle East theaters where it has influence, said Mohamed Amersi, an Iran expert and member of the Global Advisory Council of the Wilson Center, a Washington think tank.
Upon boarding his flight to Switzerland late Saturday, Vance confirmed that a key focus would be to make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire.
The U.S. official said both sides had discussed all elements of the nuclear deal. The U.S. and Iran had been set to discuss what to do with Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which Washington suspects could be used to develop a nuclear weapon.
The Trump administration wants Tehran to destroy or turn over its stockpile and suspend future enrichment. Iran has expressed openness to “downblending” the uranium to lower levels of enrichment inside the country and stop enrichment activities for about a decade. The U.S. wants it to stop for 20 years.
In exchange for concessions, the U.S. is offering extensive sanctions relief. It opened the door to Iranian oil sales and is working on ways to release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian cash as upfront incentives to open the strait and keep Iran at the table.
Tehran planned to raise the issue of freeing up its blocked assets, along with lifting sanctions on its oil exports, foreign ministry spokesman Baghaei said.
Alleged ‘ringleader’ behind White House UFC attack plot
ID’d as illegal immigrant granted Dreamer status under Obama
Chris Nesi - NY Post
The alleged “ringleader” of the explosive drone attack plot against the UFC event at the White House is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was granted Dreamer status by the Obama administration and allowed to stay in the country, Homeland Security said Thursday.
Abraham Alvarez, 31, came to the US as a child and failed to leave the country when his B2 visa expired in 2001, but was granted deportation relief under the Obama administration through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
He was arrested in an old church in the small town of Western, Nebraska, on June 14, which he intended to use as a “safe zone” for himself and his alleged co-conspirators, according to a local report by First Alert 6.
“From his home here in Nebraska, Alvarez allegedly directed and recruited others across the country to conduct a horrific attack against government officials in a mass casualty event,” Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel of the FBI Omaha field office said in a Tuesday release from the US Attorney’s Office.
“Our team worked around the clock to locate and apprehend Alvarez, take him into custody, and collect crucial evidence.”
Alvarez was one of five alleged co-conspirators in the scheme to kill President Trump and other top government officials at the combat sports spectacle held late Sunday on the White House South Lawn attended by thousands of fight fans.
The plotters, who were arrested in Ohio, Missouri and California, allegedly wanted to attack the UFC Freedom 250 event with explosive-laden drones and then pick off fleeing members of the crowd with a team of snipers.
Authorities said Alvarez was responsible for planning, organizing and directing the coordinated attack, which was thwarted by the FBI and local authorities.
“This illegal alien from Mexico should never have been allowed in our country,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “He was the ringleader of a failed terror attack targeting UFC Freedom 250 at the White House.”
“He will face justice and swiftly be removed from our country,” she added of Alvarez.
Federal investigators are looking into 23 individuals who were allegedly part of the plot.
Abraham Alvarez, 31, came to the US as a child and failed to leave the country when his B2 visa expired in 2001, but was granted deportation relief under the Obama administration through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
He was arrested in an old church in the small town of Western, Nebraska, on June 14, which he intended to use as a “safe zone” for himself and his alleged co-conspirators, according to a local report by First Alert 6.
“From his home here in Nebraska, Alvarez allegedly directed and recruited others across the country to conduct a horrific attack against government officials in a mass casualty event,” Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel of the FBI Omaha field office said in a Tuesday release from the US Attorney’s Office.
“Our team worked around the clock to locate and apprehend Alvarez, take him into custody, and collect crucial evidence.”
Alvarez was one of five alleged co-conspirators in the scheme to kill President Trump and other top government officials at the combat sports spectacle held late Sunday on the White House South Lawn attended by thousands of fight fans.
The plotters, who were arrested in Ohio, Missouri and California, allegedly wanted to attack the UFC Freedom 250 event with explosive-laden drones and then pick off fleeing members of the crowd with a team of snipers.
Authorities said Alvarez was responsible for planning, organizing and directing the coordinated attack, which was thwarted by the FBI and local authorities.
“This illegal alien from Mexico should never have been allowed in our country,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “He was the ringleader of a failed terror attack targeting UFC Freedom 250 at the White House.”
“He will face justice and swiftly be removed from our country,” she added of Alvarez.
Federal investigators are looking into 23 individuals who were allegedly part of the plot.
15 Antifa radicals indicted, 12 arrested
in sweeping federal probe into Minneapolis anti-ICE operations
Peter D'Abrosca - Fox
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota on Tuesday announced that 15 Antifa members have been indicted for their alleged roles in conspiring to hinder federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis earlier this year.
The suspects, 12 of whom are in custody, are all charged with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, according to a 94-page criminal complaint, and some are charged with further crimes. Federal prosecutors allege that each suspect took part in a conspiracy to obstruct federal immigration enforcement officers, including ICE personnel, through force, intimidation and threats.
The suspects are alleged members of the Antifa cell Direct Action Minnesota Network (DAMN), a radical far-left group accused of coordinating operations against federal immigration officers.
Federal prosecutors maintain that the group use Signal chats to organize and carry out rapid response operations including coordinating street blockades, tracking federal vehicles, surveilling the ICE field office at the federal Whipple Building and other activities meant to stop immigration officials from conducting their business.
The government says that DAMN served as the hub for participants to share intelligence, plan actions, recruit volunteers and assign roles.
Below is a full list of the suspects and the charges they face:
Isaac Sant is portrayed by prosecutors as one of the ringleaders of the conspiracy who allegedly organized meetings between anti-ICE factions, delivered shields and other equipment for "direct actions" against ICE and maintained a database of suspected federal immigration vehicles by tracking license plates.
He also allegedly coordinated "commuters" to follow federal immigration officials.
On May 4, according to the indictment, Sant personally followed a federal immigration officer from the Whipple Building in Minneapolis — a hub of anti-ICE activities — across state lines to Hudson, Wisconsin, leading to the interstate stalking charge.
William Morgan, the only suspect charged with four crimes, is also accused of interstate stalking for allegedly following a federal immigration officer on May 12 from the Whipple Building to near the officer's home in Hudson.
Three days later, Morgan allegedly committed two more crimes by confronting an agent who was conducting an interview and physically assaulting him. He later was accused of kicking a federal vehicle, causing $1,000 in property damage, the complaint claims.
Natasha Rakotz was charged with assault on a federal officer resulting in bodily injury for allegedly driving her car into the path of a federal agent, striking and injuring him — similarly to how in a January incident in Minneapolis Renee Good was shot dead during an altercation where she ran her car into a federal immigration officer.
Kyle Wagner has been in custody since February, after encouraging followers to take up arms against federal agents. More charges were announced against him during Tuesday's press conference.
President Donald Trump declared Antifa to be a terrorist organization last year.
"Today's charges and arrests reflect a broad federal effort to address organized, lawless behavior, which seeks to disrupt the execution of federal law, endanger law enforcement, and, importantly, endanger the very communities that these defendants falsely claim to be protecting," U.S. Attorney Daniel Roden said in a Tuesday press conference announcing the charges.
He emphasized that the defendants have not been arrested for speech — which is protected by the First Amendment — but for alleged criminal actions.
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy echoed that sentiment.
"Peaceful protest is a protected right and a cornerstone of our democracy. We respect and defend that right," he said. "However, there's a clear line that cannot be crossed when protest turns into rioting, violence or criminal activity, it becomes unlawful and it will not be tolerated."
"Working closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office, our investigation uncovered extensive planning, material support and coordinated attacks against federal personnel and facilities. Our teams have worked tirelessly conducting surveillance, reviewing camera footage, and analyzing large volumes of information to identify those responsible."
The suspects, 12 of whom are in custody, are all charged with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, according to a 94-page criminal complaint, and some are charged with further crimes. Federal prosecutors allege that each suspect took part in a conspiracy to obstruct federal immigration enforcement officers, including ICE personnel, through force, intimidation and threats.
The suspects are alleged members of the Antifa cell Direct Action Minnesota Network (DAMN), a radical far-left group accused of coordinating operations against federal immigration officers.
Federal prosecutors maintain that the group use Signal chats to organize and carry out rapid response operations including coordinating street blockades, tracking federal vehicles, surveilling the ICE field office at the federal Whipple Building and other activities meant to stop immigration officials from conducting their business.
The government says that DAMN served as the hub for participants to share intelligence, plan actions, recruit volunteers and assign roles.
Below is a full list of the suspects and the charges they face:
- Isaac Auman Sant - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, interstate stalking
- Emmett James Doyle - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Cameron Kennedy - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Callum Robinet - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Erik Davis - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Kyle Wagner - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, solicitation of violence, interstate threats
- Hannah Margaret Van de Water Davis - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal office
- Treasure Cay Thoreson - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Nathan Junho Kim - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Alec Stewart - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Douglas Misterek - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- Dustin Scott Beisell - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer
- William Morgan - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, interstate stalking, assault on a federal officer, destruction of government property
- Natasha Rakotz - conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, assault on a federal officer resulting in bodily injury/use of a dangerous weapon
Isaac Sant is portrayed by prosecutors as one of the ringleaders of the conspiracy who allegedly organized meetings between anti-ICE factions, delivered shields and other equipment for "direct actions" against ICE and maintained a database of suspected federal immigration vehicles by tracking license plates.
He also allegedly coordinated "commuters" to follow federal immigration officials.
On May 4, according to the indictment, Sant personally followed a federal immigration officer from the Whipple Building in Minneapolis — a hub of anti-ICE activities — across state lines to Hudson, Wisconsin, leading to the interstate stalking charge.
William Morgan, the only suspect charged with four crimes, is also accused of interstate stalking for allegedly following a federal immigration officer on May 12 from the Whipple Building to near the officer's home in Hudson.
Three days later, Morgan allegedly committed two more crimes by confronting an agent who was conducting an interview and physically assaulting him. He later was accused of kicking a federal vehicle, causing $1,000 in property damage, the complaint claims.
Natasha Rakotz was charged with assault on a federal officer resulting in bodily injury for allegedly driving her car into the path of a federal agent, striking and injuring him — similarly to how in a January incident in Minneapolis Renee Good was shot dead during an altercation where she ran her car into a federal immigration officer.
Kyle Wagner has been in custody since February, after encouraging followers to take up arms against federal agents. More charges were announced against him during Tuesday's press conference.
President Donald Trump declared Antifa to be a terrorist organization last year.
"Today's charges and arrests reflect a broad federal effort to address organized, lawless behavior, which seeks to disrupt the execution of federal law, endanger law enforcement, and, importantly, endanger the very communities that these defendants falsely claim to be protecting," U.S. Attorney Daniel Roden said in a Tuesday press conference announcing the charges.
He emphasized that the defendants have not been arrested for speech — which is protected by the First Amendment — but for alleged criminal actions.
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy echoed that sentiment.
"Peaceful protest is a protected right and a cornerstone of our democracy. We respect and defend that right," he said. "However, there's a clear line that cannot be crossed when protest turns into rioting, violence or criminal activity, it becomes unlawful and it will not be tolerated."
"Working closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office, our investigation uncovered extensive planning, material support and coordinated attacks against federal personnel and facilities. Our teams have worked tirelessly conducting surveillance, reviewing camera footage, and analyzing large volumes of information to identify those responsible."
Feds announce 15 arrests in alleged $1.4 million
public benefits fraud crackdown in Massachusetts
Samantha Genzer - Boston.com
More than a dozen people have been arrested in connection with an alleged scheme that defrauded Massachusetts taxpayers of more than $1.4 million in public benefits.
The US Justice Department announced Thursday that 15 individuals are facing charges tied to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), MassHealth, Social Security disability, housing, and unemployment benefits.
Officials said 11 of the defendants were living in the United States without legal status.
“These cases highlight a broader, deeply troubling pattern: the exploitation of America’s safety-net by illegal aliens,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, said in a statement announcing the charges.
“Fraud by illegal aliens carries real and substantial costs to American taxpayers and places enormous strain on our public benefits systems,” McDonald added.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said those facing charges without U.S. legal status “will be swiftly removed” from the country.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said the cases mark the beginning of a “sustained and ongoing effort” targeting individuals accused of fraudulently obtaining taxpayer-funded benefits.
“There isn’t any place else in the world where you can go and be handed free food, free housing, free healthcare, and free monthly checks, while being in the country illegally,” she said. “However, it appears that you can come to Massachusetts and steal as many benefits as you want without fear and without any accountability. This is all ending on my watch.”
In March, Foley launched the Benefit and Voter Fraud Team to investigate misuse of taxpayer-funded benefits in the state. Foley said beginning Thursday, authorities will be releasing benefit fraud charges on a “rolling basis.”
“In response to rampant fraud in Massachusetts, and with the support of our task force partners and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, we’re redoubling our efforts to root out fraud and bring these criminals to justice,” Jeffrey Grimming, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, said.
Be civil. Be kind.
The US Justice Department announced Thursday that 15 individuals are facing charges tied to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), MassHealth, Social Security disability, housing, and unemployment benefits.
Officials said 11 of the defendants were living in the United States without legal status.
“These cases highlight a broader, deeply troubling pattern: the exploitation of America’s safety-net by illegal aliens,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, said in a statement announcing the charges.
“Fraud by illegal aliens carries real and substantial costs to American taxpayers and places enormous strain on our public benefits systems,” McDonald added.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said those facing charges without U.S. legal status “will be swiftly removed” from the country.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said the cases mark the beginning of a “sustained and ongoing effort” targeting individuals accused of fraudulently obtaining taxpayer-funded benefits.
“There isn’t any place else in the world where you can go and be handed free food, free housing, free healthcare, and free monthly checks, while being in the country illegally,” she said. “However, it appears that you can come to Massachusetts and steal as many benefits as you want without fear and without any accountability. This is all ending on my watch.”
In March, Foley launched the Benefit and Voter Fraud Team to investigate misuse of taxpayer-funded benefits in the state. Foley said beginning Thursday, authorities will be releasing benefit fraud charges on a “rolling basis.”
“In response to rampant fraud in Massachusetts, and with the support of our task force partners and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, we’re redoubling our efforts to root out fraud and bring these criminals to justice,” Jeffrey Grimming, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New England, said.
Be civil. Be kind.
Alleged $38M adult day care scam busted in Brooklyn
— snaring Pakistani community leaders who cozied up to Dems
Chadwick Moore and Isabel Vincent - NY Post
A prominent Pakistani-American businessman who spent years cozying up to powerful Democrats stands accused of being part of a $38 million Medicaid scam.
Civic leader and well-known Brooklyn Community Board 13 member Pervez Siddiqui, 78, was arrested Monday along with seven co-conspirators.
They are alleged to have run a large-scale Medicaid kickback and false-billing scheme through two social adult day care (SADC) centers in Brooklyn: APNA Adult Daycare and Ashiana Social Adult Daycare.
The scam ran from 2019 through December 2025, feds allege, with seniors being signed up for day cares that they rarely or never attended, then getting a cut of the Medicaid payment.
“Marketers are going around looking for the Medicaid card. They stop people on the street, at bus stops. They go into doctors’ offices. They go into NYCHA [government housing] where they know people are low-income. They ask, ‘Do you have a Medicaid card?’” a source with knowledge of the investigation told The Post.
Siddiqui, who owns around 15 pharmacies in New Jersey, is prolific in local political circles and a regular donor to Democratic campaigns, sometimes shelling out over $10,000 a pop to local candidates, records show. And through his ties to another group, he scored an intimate sit-down with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in December 2025, pictures obtained by The Post show.
Shazia Bibi (a.k.a. Shazia Wattoo), Abdul Aziz, Shair Ali, and their recruiter co-defendants Zebun Ahmed, Josna Begum, Saira Khatoon, and Atia Shahnaz were also involved, according to the unsealed indictment against them.
The gang paid cash bribes directly to New York Medicaid recipients to enroll at APNA or Ashiana — even though most never attended their facilities — and paid the recruiters kickbacks to refer patients, while submitting $38 million in fraudulent claims to New York Medicaid for services that were never provided, according to the indictment.
To conceal the fraud, they created fake sign-in sheets far exceeding APNA’s certificate of occupancy on certain days, used Pakistan-based billing staff, and laundered proceeds through shell companies by writing checks disguised as “gifts,” “dividends,” or coded entries like “medicine,” or “laddu,” an Indian word for sweets, according to the indictment.
After a December 2025 federal search warrant was executed, Bibi, Siddiqui, and Ali tried to cover their tracks by telling staff to get new phones and delete data, feds say.
The source said the so-called marketers each manage a group of 30 to 50 patients.
“They keep them together. There’s a cultural element. A Russian marketer will pick up Russians, Pakistani for Pakistanis, Chinese for Chinese,” the source said.
Through his affiliation with a different group called the American Pakistani Public Affairs Committee (APPAC), Siddiqui got unprecedented access to some of the state’s top Democrats, including hosting a fundraiser for New York Attorney General Letitia James in June 2022 at a restaurant in Coney Island.
Mamdani has previously praised the APPAC for its strong support, crediting his victory in part to its get-out-the-vote efforts. At the December meeting where Siddiqui was present, Mamdani praised lawyer Ali Najmi — who has collaborated with APNA and Siddiqui on policy initiatives and panels — calling him “his brother.”
Najmi, who recently received an award from APNA Community Services, is not implicated in the scam.
Medicaid reimbursements to insurance companies — called managed long term care providers or MLTCs — cap at $6,000 a month, per patient, in most cases. Day cares often are one aspect of such Medicaid scams, which may extend into transportation companies, pharmacies and home health care services that use the same Medicaid numbers for payments and kickbacks.
For handing over their Medicaid card, seniors at APNA or their family members were getting $500 a month in kickbacks for day care services that were never provided, according to the source.
Shockingly, the indictment says the payments were made even when enrollees were not in the US. The sources claimed many had even gone to live in other countries while they or their family members collected Medicaid kickback money.
“The patient is in Pakistan, they’re in Morocco. They’re not even in this country,” the source claimed.
Regarding Bibi, 45, the source claimed she is a “thug,” adding: “She doesn’t even know how to write her name. But she’s street-smart.”
In 2018, Bibi, also on Brooklyn Community Board 13, was a featured honoree at a dinner hosted by Brooklyn political org Bay Democrats, just months after Siddiqui personally donated $3,000 to the group, The Post discovered.
In 2022 public testimony before the City Council, Bibi called herself a “community activist” and griped, “we as a Pakistani American Community and as a Muslim American feel alienated because we as a community could not get any resources.”
Three years later, she was sitting next to then-Mayor Eric Adams at a women’s iftar dinner hosted at Gracie Mansion, an event sponsored by Siddiqui-owned Shazia Pharmacy in Coney Island.
The indictment makes no mention of pharmacies or other business affiliated with Siddiqui, who lives in New Jersey but owns extensive property in Brooklyn.
APNA declined to comment to The Post. Siddiqui and the other indictees could not be reached for comment.
Federal law enforcement declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
APNA Adult Day Care has a sister organization, a nonprofit called APNA Community Services, also focused on elderly and immigrant support. The two share leadership teams with Siddiqui listed as the board chair and co-founder on its website.
They operate out of the same facilities and it appears Siddiqui used his association with the nonprofit to cover his alleged illegal activities.
In February, the federal government awarded a $530,000 grant to APNA Community Services, funding backed by New York’s Democratic US Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Two weeks ago, APNA Community Services boss Erum Halif — who co-founded the day care but shifted over to the nonprofit — was invited to a picnic at Gracie Mansion with Mamdani, where she shared beaming videos on social media hanging with the Democratic socialist leader.
Halif told The Post she had not been involved with the SADC for several years and had no knowledge of its operations. She is not named in the indictment.
In a bombshell report earlier this year, The Post visited over a dozen SADCs in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens to find many were nearly empty at peak hours.
Most clients appeared healthy and active without signs of “chronic disability” or mobility issues requiring “nursing home level of care” that is needed to qualify for the taxpayer-funded service. Several facilities were caught serving to-go lunches in strict violation of Medicaid rules.
A Medicaid fraud case revealed last June exposed $68 million was being stolen from taxpayers in a scheme involving two SADCs in Brooklyn. Owner Zakia Khan’s racket paid kickbacks and bribes to marketers for referring Medicaid recipients to her SADCs from 2017 onward.
The source told The Post that in order to keep getting kickbacks, many of Khan’s former “patients” moved over to APNA after that operation got busted — a migration that should have raised flags with fraud detection outfits at insurance companies, but didn’t.
“The patients called the insurance companies — no questions asked — ‘I want to switch to APNA daycare,’” the source claimed.
In February, two Queens men, Inwoo Kim, 42, and Daniel Lee, 56, were charged with a nearly identical fraud, where they allegedly ripped off $120 million from Medicaid in a decade-long scheme that involved two SDACs in Flushing, according to feds.
New York spends the most Medicaid money per patient compared to any other state, and 77 percent more than the national average.
“There is zero oversight. The fraud will never stop because they don’t want it to stop. The MLTCs are funding the politicians because that’s how they make money. They want more and more patients enrolled. They are the reason this fraud has spread so fast,” the source alleged.
“How are the politicians and the insurance companies going to control the fraud when they are part of the fraud?” the source asked.
Civic leader and well-known Brooklyn Community Board 13 member Pervez Siddiqui, 78, was arrested Monday along with seven co-conspirators.
They are alleged to have run a large-scale Medicaid kickback and false-billing scheme through two social adult day care (SADC) centers in Brooklyn: APNA Adult Daycare and Ashiana Social Adult Daycare.
The scam ran from 2019 through December 2025, feds allege, with seniors being signed up for day cares that they rarely or never attended, then getting a cut of the Medicaid payment.
“Marketers are going around looking for the Medicaid card. They stop people on the street, at bus stops. They go into doctors’ offices. They go into NYCHA [government housing] where they know people are low-income. They ask, ‘Do you have a Medicaid card?’” a source with knowledge of the investigation told The Post.
Siddiqui, who owns around 15 pharmacies in New Jersey, is prolific in local political circles and a regular donor to Democratic campaigns, sometimes shelling out over $10,000 a pop to local candidates, records show. And through his ties to another group, he scored an intimate sit-down with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in December 2025, pictures obtained by The Post show.
Shazia Bibi (a.k.a. Shazia Wattoo), Abdul Aziz, Shair Ali, and their recruiter co-defendants Zebun Ahmed, Josna Begum, Saira Khatoon, and Atia Shahnaz were also involved, according to the unsealed indictment against them.
The gang paid cash bribes directly to New York Medicaid recipients to enroll at APNA or Ashiana — even though most never attended their facilities — and paid the recruiters kickbacks to refer patients, while submitting $38 million in fraudulent claims to New York Medicaid for services that were never provided, according to the indictment.
To conceal the fraud, they created fake sign-in sheets far exceeding APNA’s certificate of occupancy on certain days, used Pakistan-based billing staff, and laundered proceeds through shell companies by writing checks disguised as “gifts,” “dividends,” or coded entries like “medicine,” or “laddu,” an Indian word for sweets, according to the indictment.
After a December 2025 federal search warrant was executed, Bibi, Siddiqui, and Ali tried to cover their tracks by telling staff to get new phones and delete data, feds say.
The source said the so-called marketers each manage a group of 30 to 50 patients.
“They keep them together. There’s a cultural element. A Russian marketer will pick up Russians, Pakistani for Pakistanis, Chinese for Chinese,” the source said.
Through his affiliation with a different group called the American Pakistani Public Affairs Committee (APPAC), Siddiqui got unprecedented access to some of the state’s top Democrats, including hosting a fundraiser for New York Attorney General Letitia James in June 2022 at a restaurant in Coney Island.
Mamdani has previously praised the APPAC for its strong support, crediting his victory in part to its get-out-the-vote efforts. At the December meeting where Siddiqui was present, Mamdani praised lawyer Ali Najmi — who has collaborated with APNA and Siddiqui on policy initiatives and panels — calling him “his brother.”
Najmi, who recently received an award from APNA Community Services, is not implicated in the scam.
Medicaid reimbursements to insurance companies — called managed long term care providers or MLTCs — cap at $6,000 a month, per patient, in most cases. Day cares often are one aspect of such Medicaid scams, which may extend into transportation companies, pharmacies and home health care services that use the same Medicaid numbers for payments and kickbacks.
For handing over their Medicaid card, seniors at APNA or their family members were getting $500 a month in kickbacks for day care services that were never provided, according to the source.
Shockingly, the indictment says the payments were made even when enrollees were not in the US. The sources claimed many had even gone to live in other countries while they or their family members collected Medicaid kickback money.
“The patient is in Pakistan, they’re in Morocco. They’re not even in this country,” the source claimed.
Regarding Bibi, 45, the source claimed she is a “thug,” adding: “She doesn’t even know how to write her name. But she’s street-smart.”
In 2018, Bibi, also on Brooklyn Community Board 13, was a featured honoree at a dinner hosted by Brooklyn political org Bay Democrats, just months after Siddiqui personally donated $3,000 to the group, The Post discovered.
In 2022 public testimony before the City Council, Bibi called herself a “community activist” and griped, “we as a Pakistani American Community and as a Muslim American feel alienated because we as a community could not get any resources.”
Three years later, she was sitting next to then-Mayor Eric Adams at a women’s iftar dinner hosted at Gracie Mansion, an event sponsored by Siddiqui-owned Shazia Pharmacy in Coney Island.
The indictment makes no mention of pharmacies or other business affiliated with Siddiqui, who lives in New Jersey but owns extensive property in Brooklyn.
APNA declined to comment to The Post. Siddiqui and the other indictees could not be reached for comment.
Federal law enforcement declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
APNA Adult Day Care has a sister organization, a nonprofit called APNA Community Services, also focused on elderly and immigrant support. The two share leadership teams with Siddiqui listed as the board chair and co-founder on its website.
They operate out of the same facilities and it appears Siddiqui used his association with the nonprofit to cover his alleged illegal activities.
In February, the federal government awarded a $530,000 grant to APNA Community Services, funding backed by New York’s Democratic US Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Two weeks ago, APNA Community Services boss Erum Halif — who co-founded the day care but shifted over to the nonprofit — was invited to a picnic at Gracie Mansion with Mamdani, where she shared beaming videos on social media hanging with the Democratic socialist leader.
Halif told The Post she had not been involved with the SADC for several years and had no knowledge of its operations. She is not named in the indictment.
In a bombshell report earlier this year, The Post visited over a dozen SADCs in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens to find many were nearly empty at peak hours.
Most clients appeared healthy and active without signs of “chronic disability” or mobility issues requiring “nursing home level of care” that is needed to qualify for the taxpayer-funded service. Several facilities were caught serving to-go lunches in strict violation of Medicaid rules.
A Medicaid fraud case revealed last June exposed $68 million was being stolen from taxpayers in a scheme involving two SADCs in Brooklyn. Owner Zakia Khan’s racket paid kickbacks and bribes to marketers for referring Medicaid recipients to her SADCs from 2017 onward.
The source told The Post that in order to keep getting kickbacks, many of Khan’s former “patients” moved over to APNA after that operation got busted — a migration that should have raised flags with fraud detection outfits at insurance companies, but didn’t.
“The patients called the insurance companies — no questions asked — ‘I want to switch to APNA daycare,’” the source claimed.
In February, two Queens men, Inwoo Kim, 42, and Daniel Lee, 56, were charged with a nearly identical fraud, where they allegedly ripped off $120 million from Medicaid in a decade-long scheme that involved two SDACs in Flushing, according to feds.
New York spends the most Medicaid money per patient compared to any other state, and 77 percent more than the national average.
“There is zero oversight. The fraud will never stop because they don’t want it to stop. The MLTCs are funding the politicians because that’s how they make money. They want more and more patients enrolled. They are the reason this fraud has spread so fast,” the source alleged.
“How are the politicians and the insurance companies going to control the fraud when they are part of the fraud?” the source asked.
PETA, animal rights groups praise Trump admin
for phasing out 'cruel tests on dogs' and other animals
Emma Colton - Fox
The Trump administration is receiving an outpouring of support from animal advocacy groups, lawmakers and others for recent announcements to end animal testing within programs at the FDA and EPA.
"PETA applauds the FDA’s decision to stop harming animals and adopt human-relevant testing strategies for evaluating antibody therapies," Kathy Guillermo, PETA senior vice president, said in a statement.
"It’s a significant step towards meeting the agency’s commitment to replace the use of animals – which PETA has worked hard to promote. All animal use, including failed vaccine and other testing on monkeys at the federally-funded primate centers, must end, and we are calling on the FDA to further embrace 21st-century science," the PETA statement continued.
PETA's statement followed the Food and Drug Administration announcement on Thursday that it is phasing out an animal testing requirement for antibody therapies and other drugs in favor of testing on materials that mimic human organs, Fox Digital first reported.
"For too long, drug manufacturers have performed additional animal testing of drugs that have data in broad human use internationally. This initiative marks a paradigm shift in drug evaluation and holds promise to accelerate cures and meaningful treatments for Americans while reducing animal use," FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary, said in comments provided to Fox News Digital.
"By leveraging AI-based computational modeling, human organ model-based lab testing, and real-world human data, we can get safer treatments to patients faster and more reliably, while also reducing R&D costs and drug prices. It is a win-win for public health and ethics."
Dogs, rats and fish were the primary animals to face testing ahead of Thursday's announcement, Fox Digital learned.
The phase-out focuses on ending animal testing in regard to researching monoclonal antibody therapies, which are lab-made proteins meant to stimulate the immune system to fight diseases such as cancer, as well as other drugs, according to the press release.
Instead, the FDA will encourage testing on "organoids," which are artificially grown masses of cells, according to the FDA's press release.
Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin announced on the same day that the agency would reinstate a 2019 policy from the first Trump administration to phase out animal testing at that federal agency. The EPA said in comment that the Biden administration moved away from phasing out animal testing, but that Zeldin is "wholly committed to getting the agency back on track to eliminating animal testing."
"Under President Trump’s first term, EPA signed a directive to prioritize efforts to reduce animal testing and committed to reducing testing on mammals by 30% by 2025 and to eliminate it completely by 2035. The Biden administration halted progress on these efforts by delaying compliance deadlines. Administrator Zeldin is wholly committed to getting the agency back on track to eliminating animal testing," EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou told the Washington Times.
The EPA's and FDA's recent announcements also received praise from animal rights groups, including the White Coat Waste Project, which reported in 2021 that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spent hundreds of thousands of dollars under Dr. Anthony Fauci's leadership to test beagle dogs with parasites via biting flies.
"Thank you @DrMakaryFDA for your years of advocacy & outstanding leadership to eliminate FDA red tape that forces companies & tax-funded federal agencies to conduct wasteful & cruel tests on dogs & other animals!" the group posted to X last week.
"White Coat Waste made historic progress under Trump 45 to cut wasteful and cruel animal testing at the EPA and FDA, some of which was undone by the Biden Administration," Justin Goodman, senior vice president at White Coat, told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
"We applaud Administrator Zeldin and Commissioner Makary for picking up where Trump left off and prioritizing efforts to cut widely-opposed and wasteful animal tests. This is great news for taxpayers and pet owners as it sends a message to big spending animal abusers across the federal government: Stop the money. Stop the madness!"
Other animal rights groups and lawmakers praised the Trump administration for its recent moves to end animal testing.
"We’re encouraged to see the EPA recommit to phasing out animal testing – a goal we’ve long championed on behalf of the animals trapped in these outdated and painful experiments," Kitty Block, president and CEO of Humane World for Animals, said in a press release. "But promises alone don’t spare lives. For too long, animals like dogs, rabbits and mice have endured tests that inflict suffering without delivering better science. It’s time to replace these cruel methods with modern, humane alternatives that the public overwhelmingly supports."
Other groups have come out and warned that there is not yet a high-tech replacement for animals within the realm of biomedical research and drug testing, and that humane animal testing is still crucial to test prospective drugs for humans.
"We all want better and faster ways to bring lifesaving treatments to patients," National Association for Biomedical Research President Matthew R. Bailey said in a press release provided to Fox Digital. "But no AI model or simulation has yet demonstrated the ability to fully replicate all the unknowns about many full biological systems. That’s why humane animal research remains indispensable."
Under his first administration, Trump took other steps to protect animals, including signing the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act into law in 2019, which made intentional acts of cruelty a federal crime.
"PETA applauds the FDA’s decision to stop harming animals and adopt human-relevant testing strategies for evaluating antibody therapies," Kathy Guillermo, PETA senior vice president, said in a statement.
"It’s a significant step towards meeting the agency’s commitment to replace the use of animals – which PETA has worked hard to promote. All animal use, including failed vaccine and other testing on monkeys at the federally-funded primate centers, must end, and we are calling on the FDA to further embrace 21st-century science," the PETA statement continued.
PETA's statement followed the Food and Drug Administration announcement on Thursday that it is phasing out an animal testing requirement for antibody therapies and other drugs in favor of testing on materials that mimic human organs, Fox Digital first reported.
"For too long, drug manufacturers have performed additional animal testing of drugs that have data in broad human use internationally. This initiative marks a paradigm shift in drug evaluation and holds promise to accelerate cures and meaningful treatments for Americans while reducing animal use," FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary, said in comments provided to Fox News Digital.
"By leveraging AI-based computational modeling, human organ model-based lab testing, and real-world human data, we can get safer treatments to patients faster and more reliably, while also reducing R&D costs and drug prices. It is a win-win for public health and ethics."
Dogs, rats and fish were the primary animals to face testing ahead of Thursday's announcement, Fox Digital learned.
The phase-out focuses on ending animal testing in regard to researching monoclonal antibody therapies, which are lab-made proteins meant to stimulate the immune system to fight diseases such as cancer, as well as other drugs, according to the press release.
Instead, the FDA will encourage testing on "organoids," which are artificially grown masses of cells, according to the FDA's press release.
Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin announced on the same day that the agency would reinstate a 2019 policy from the first Trump administration to phase out animal testing at that federal agency. The EPA said in comment that the Biden administration moved away from phasing out animal testing, but that Zeldin is "wholly committed to getting the agency back on track to eliminating animal testing."
"Under President Trump’s first term, EPA signed a directive to prioritize efforts to reduce animal testing and committed to reducing testing on mammals by 30% by 2025 and to eliminate it completely by 2035. The Biden administration halted progress on these efforts by delaying compliance deadlines. Administrator Zeldin is wholly committed to getting the agency back on track to eliminating animal testing," EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou told the Washington Times.
The EPA's and FDA's recent announcements also received praise from animal rights groups, including the White Coat Waste Project, which reported in 2021 that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spent hundreds of thousands of dollars under Dr. Anthony Fauci's leadership to test beagle dogs with parasites via biting flies.
"Thank you @DrMakaryFDA for your years of advocacy & outstanding leadership to eliminate FDA red tape that forces companies & tax-funded federal agencies to conduct wasteful & cruel tests on dogs & other animals!" the group posted to X last week.
"White Coat Waste made historic progress under Trump 45 to cut wasteful and cruel animal testing at the EPA and FDA, some of which was undone by the Biden Administration," Justin Goodman, senior vice president at White Coat, told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
"We applaud Administrator Zeldin and Commissioner Makary for picking up where Trump left off and prioritizing efforts to cut widely-opposed and wasteful animal tests. This is great news for taxpayers and pet owners as it sends a message to big spending animal abusers across the federal government: Stop the money. Stop the madness!"
Other animal rights groups and lawmakers praised the Trump administration for its recent moves to end animal testing.
"We’re encouraged to see the EPA recommit to phasing out animal testing – a goal we’ve long championed on behalf of the animals trapped in these outdated and painful experiments," Kitty Block, president and CEO of Humane World for Animals, said in a press release. "But promises alone don’t spare lives. For too long, animals like dogs, rabbits and mice have endured tests that inflict suffering without delivering better science. It’s time to replace these cruel methods with modern, humane alternatives that the public overwhelmingly supports."
Other groups have come out and warned that there is not yet a high-tech replacement for animals within the realm of biomedical research and drug testing, and that humane animal testing is still crucial to test prospective drugs for humans.
"We all want better and faster ways to bring lifesaving treatments to patients," National Association for Biomedical Research President Matthew R. Bailey said in a press release provided to Fox Digital. "But no AI model or simulation has yet demonstrated the ability to fully replicate all the unknowns about many full biological systems. That’s why humane animal research remains indispensable."
Under his first administration, Trump took other steps to protect animals, including signing the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act into law in 2019, which made intentional acts of cruelty a federal crime.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer set to resign
after Labour Party turns on him
David Spector - NYPost
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is reportedly set to resign Monday, though sources close to him contend he’s focused on the job.
Starmer is said to be discussing his political future with his wife, Victoria, before laying out a timetable for his departure from 10 Downing St. next week, according to The Observer.
The news comes after Starmer rival Andy Burnham won a seat in parliament in a special election in Greater Manchester.
A senior UK government figure told Reuters that Starmer is focused on his job – and claimed the prime minister isn’t going anywhere.
Burnham, who has made two previous runs at heading the Labour Party, is said to have the support of over half the Labour MPs to mount a leadership challenge to Starmer, the outlet reported.
The two are set to meet next week.
“Keir has realised the game is up and it’s got to be a graceful exit,” a senior Labour figure told Reuters The Observer.
“What he rightly wants to avoid is humiliation, but the worst humiliation for Keir personally would be if he stands in a leadership election and is heavily beaten.”
Burnham, who was mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017-2026, was once associated with the centrist pro-business faction of the Labour Party, but now presents himself as a left-wing populist and is known for his Mamdani-like man on the street social media videos.
He received 55% of the vote, walloping Labour’s main rival, the Reform Party, headed by Brexiteer Nigel Farrage.
Starmer has faced dismal approval ratings as Britain deals with economic and immigration issues.
He has frequently clashed with President Trump – particularly after he refused to come to the aid of the United States in the war against Iran.
“I’m not happy with the UK either… this is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said of Starmer in March after tensions between the two leaders came to a boil.
Trump was frustrated by Starmer’s refusal to allow U.S. planes to launch from the joint U.S.-U.K. airbase in Diego Garcia and other U.K. bases in the region.
He ultimately allowed the U.S. access to Diego Garcia, but not after several tongue-lashings from the commander in chief.
“We were not involved in the initial strikes against Iran, and we will not join offensive action now. But in the face of Iran’s barrage of missiles and drones, we will protect our people in the region,” Starmer said in March.
Starmer is said to be discussing his political future with his wife, Victoria, before laying out a timetable for his departure from 10 Downing St. next week, according to The Observer.
The news comes after Starmer rival Andy Burnham won a seat in parliament in a special election in Greater Manchester.
A senior UK government figure told Reuters that Starmer is focused on his job – and claimed the prime minister isn’t going anywhere.
Burnham, who has made two previous runs at heading the Labour Party, is said to have the support of over half the Labour MPs to mount a leadership challenge to Starmer, the outlet reported.
The two are set to meet next week.
“Keir has realised the game is up and it’s got to be a graceful exit,” a senior Labour figure told Reuters The Observer.
“What he rightly wants to avoid is humiliation, but the worst humiliation for Keir personally would be if he stands in a leadership election and is heavily beaten.”
Burnham, who was mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017-2026, was once associated with the centrist pro-business faction of the Labour Party, but now presents himself as a left-wing populist and is known for his Mamdani-like man on the street social media videos.
He received 55% of the vote, walloping Labour’s main rival, the Reform Party, headed by Brexiteer Nigel Farrage.
Starmer has faced dismal approval ratings as Britain deals with economic and immigration issues.
He has frequently clashed with President Trump – particularly after he refused to come to the aid of the United States in the war against Iran.
“I’m not happy with the UK either… this is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said of Starmer in March after tensions between the two leaders came to a boil.
Trump was frustrated by Starmer’s refusal to allow U.S. planes to launch from the joint U.S.-U.K. airbase in Diego Garcia and other U.K. bases in the region.
He ultimately allowed the U.S. access to Diego Garcia, but not after several tongue-lashings from the commander in chief.
“We were not involved in the initial strikes against Iran, and we will not join offensive action now. But in the face of Iran’s barrage of missiles and drones, we will protect our people in the region,” Starmer said in March.
Up is down, left is right and sideways is straight ahead. - Cord "Circle of Iron", 1978 (written by Bruce Lee and James Coburn... really...)
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