News of the World

[kyonides]

USA

House panel subpoenas three far-left nonprofits as part of probe into Marxist millionaire Neville Singham Roy

WASHINGTON — A powerful House panel subpoenaed three far-left nonprofits Wednesday as part of a sweeping review of Shanghai-based Marxist millionaire Neville Roy Singham’s network of subversive groups in the US.

The House Ways and Means Committee is probing the path of $39 million disbursed from Singham to the People’s Forum, lefty media outlet BreakThrough News, and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Fox News Digital first reported on the subpoenas.

Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) ripped the three groups for failing to cough up a “single responsive document” in response to the committee’s prior requests for information.

Smith’s team is concerned about the network’s potential roles in money laundering, amplifying Communist propaganda, and pushing political violence.

“Your responses have failed to include a single responsive document and misrepresented both the scope and purpose of the Committee’s oversight,” Smith wrote to each subpoena target. “Accordingly, the Committee is invoking compulsory process to obtain the requested materials.”

The Ways and Means Committee has sought information about the groups’ communications with Singham as well as contacts with foreign donors or interests.

In his subpoenas, Smith alleged that Singham and his wife, Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, established a network of shell companies and donor-advised funds to funnel money into the US in ways that raise “significant concerns regarding foreign influence over a tax-exempt organization.”

Whether Singham pushed the $39 million through the shell company network before it was received by the three subpoenaed groups is the question the House panel is looking at.

“The Committee is examining whether existing standards governing tax-exempt status adequately account for foreign funding that reaches an organization indirectly through intermediary entities and donor-advised funds that, by design, obscure the original source of the contribution,” Smith wrote.

Singham is believed to have funneled $22.4 million to People’s Forum, $16.8 million to Tricontinental and almost $1.1 million to Breakthrough BT Media Inc., according to a March Fox News Digital report that triggered the Ways and Means probe.

Underpinning the investigation is the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires lobbyists for foreign interests to register with the Justice Department.

All three organizations have argued that the House probe tramples upon their First Amendment rights.

Court checks Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker as Trump administration scores another immigration win

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was dealt a major legal blow Friday after a federal judge gutted key state laws providing in-state tuition, financial aid and scholarships to illegal immigrants, marking another win for the Trump administration’s nationwide immigration agenda.

US District Judge Stephen McGlynn, a Trump appointee serving in the Southern District of Illinois, sided with the Justice Department, ruling that Illinois’ in-state tuition policies, the RISE Act and the Illinois DREAM Act are “unconstitutional and invalid” as they apply to illegal immigrants.

The ruling permanently prevents Illinois from enforcing the laws, although McGlynn delayed the order from taking effect for 14 days to allow the state to ask an appeals court to intervene.

US Attorney Steven Weinhoeft celebrated the ruling.

“Illinois sought to incentivize illegal immigration on the taxpayer’s dime by treating illegal aliens better than US citizens living in other states, in clear violation of federal law,” Weinhoeft said in a statement. “This ruling enforces the statute Congress wrote and stops the State from putting illegal aliens ahead of American citizens.”

The decision is the latest victory for the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle state laws extending higher education benefits to illegal immigrants and comes one day after the Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit against Colorado.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit against Illinois and a handful of colleges in September 2025, arguing Illinois violated federal law by offering in-state tuition and financial aid to illegal immigrants without making those same benefits available to all US citizens regardless of where they live.

McGlynn granted the federal government’s motion for summary judgment and denied Illinois’ motion to dismiss.

Federal appeals court rejects Trump bid to enforce mail ballot order ahead of midterm elections

A federal appeals court on Saturday refused to let the Trump administration enforce key parts of President Donald Trump’s executive order tightening mail-in voting rules in 23 Democratic-led states, a setback that could send the administration to the US Supreme Court ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

In a 2-1 decision, the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to pause a June ruling blocking several provisions of Trump’s March executive order while the administration appeals.

The DOJ previously told the court it could seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court if it did not prevail.

The administration argued the lawsuit was premature because federal agencies had not finalized the policies needed to implement the executive order.

But the appeals court found the plaintiff states were already facing looming election deadlines and had begun preparing for potential changes.

“As the district court reasoned, the (executive order) lays out a clear set of rapidly approaching deadlines by which states must coordinate with federal officials and comply with new voting procedures,” the majority wrote. “The Plaintiff States have no practical choice but to respond to the (order) now.”

Trump signed Executive Order 14399 in March as part of his election integrity agenda.

The order directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to compile lists of confirmed US citizens eligible to vote and provide them to states, instructs the US Postal Service (USPS) to establish new standards for mail-in ballots and directs the Justice Department to prioritize investigations into state and local election officials who issue federal ballots to people deemed ineligible to vote.

The lawsuit was brought by 23 states and the District of Columbia, led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington.

The states argue the Constitution gives them primary responsibility for administering federal elections and that the president exceeded his authority by directing federal agencies to impose new voting requirements.

LAPD’s top cop reveals staggering extent of police shortage

The Los Angeles Police Department’s officer shortage has gone from bad to worse — with the city’s top cop revealing that he has lost hundreds of officers in recent months while trying bolster the beleaguered force by a staggering 4,000 more.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell exclusively told The California Post that the department’s uniformed force currently stands at about 8,550, down about 200 officers from February when the LAPD had more than 8,700 cops.

McDonnell also revealed that the LAPD currently needs about 12,500 cops to ideally safeguard the city, updating a previous estimate of about 12,000 officers that he cited to the Post in February.

“We would be able to provide the best coverage possible with 12,500 officers. We’re not even in that ballpark. We currently have 8,551 for officers that are on the job today,” he said.

“When somebody comes into this organization from another organization as a lateral, they can’t believe what we get done with the number of people we have,” he added.
California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton called the revelation “shocking and scandalous.”

“It is totally unacceptable for America’s second city to be starved of law enforcement in this way,” he told The California Post. “This is what happens with years of a far left ideology that tries to systematically undermine law enforcement in the name of ‘criminal justice reform’ — defund the police, close the prisons, catch and release. It all adds up to massive demoralization of the brave men and women who put themselves at risk to keep us safe.”

In February, McDonnell said LA needed 12,000 officers just to function safely — a staggering 38% increase, or roughly 3,300 more cops from staffing levels at the time. The new 12,500 figure represents an ideal level, he said, enabling the department to achieve the best possible results with major events like the 2028 Summer Olympics expected to bring millions of people to the city.

Instead, the City Council approved funding to hire up just to 410 officers this fiscal year, a move one senior department source described as “a drop in the bucket.”

A bloc of Democratic Socialists of America councilmembers have been openly hostile to the LAPD, with member and now mayoral candidate Nithya Raman opposed to any increases to the department’s budget and pushing to shrink its role.

“We are thankful that we are not dealing with a Mayor Raman, who has repeatedly voted to cut funding to hire police officers and has no real plan to keep Angelenos safe,” Tom Saggau, spokesman for the city’s largest police union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told the California Post.

WARS

Fake corpses of Barron, Ivanka, and Melania shown in latest sick Iran billboard: ‘Get ready to die’

Sick billboards pretending to show the bloodied corpses of President Trump’s wife and two of his children have appeared in Iran in the latest gruesome threat to the US leader.

The sickening, mocked-up images of first lady Melania Trump as well as Barron and Ivanka showed them with their eyes shut and the word “KILLED” in English emblazoned across the top in red.

“Hey, terrorist! Get ready to die,” the text also says in the disturbing billboards installed Tuesday above a highway in Iran’s capital, Tehran.

It’s the latest ghoulish threat made to Trump and his family in recent weeks, following the breakdown of Pakistan-brokered peace talks between Washington, DC, and Tehran in Israel’s war with the regime.

Last week, another display was unveiled in central Tehran showing the president and his family members’ portraits above coffins draped in the American flag.

The sick mural, installed in Palestine Square, showed Trump, his wife, and his five children — Barron, Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Tiffany — above coffins set against the backdrop of the White House.

“Blood for Blood,” read the slogan accompanying the display, which also threatened revenge for US-Israeli strikes that killed Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several members of his family.

Last week, Iran’s regime also installed another billboard depicting Trump’s corpse, along with the words, “We Kill Trump,” written in both English and Persian.

The billboard, installed in Tehran’s Enghelab Square, showed the President with his mouth and eyes closed, his hair dishevelled, and his hands resting on his trademark red tie.

U.S. Intelligence Says Mojtaba Khamenei ‘Far More’ Inclined to Pursue Nuclear Weapons

President Donald Trump’s intelligence community has concluded that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is far more inclined than his father to pursue nuclear weapons, raising concerns that Tehran’s long-term nuclear ambitions may have hardened despite the devastating damage inflicted on its atomic program.

The assessment, first reported Friday by the New York Times and based largely on intelligence collected before the current war, found Mojtaba significantly less hesitant than his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, about pursuing a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence.

Mojtaba assumed Iran’s highest office after his father was killed during the opening strikes of Operation Epic Fury. The younger Khamenei was reportedly seriously injured in the attack and has not been seen or heard from publicly since taking power, with officials telling the Times that his limited communications have made assessing his current intentions more difficult.

U.S. officials said they have seen no evidence that Iran has resumed nuclear enrichment or weaponization efforts since the conflict began. Instead, they believe Tehran has concentrated on preserving surviving nuclear assets and expertise that could eventually allow it to revive the program.

Rather than immediately rebuilding the facilities destroyed or heavily damaged during the war, Iran has reportedly sought to protect surviving components of its nuclear infrastructure, including equipment believed to have been moved toward the heavily fortified Pickaxe Mountain complex near Natanz.

The undeclared underground facility has emerged as a major concern for Washington and Jerusalem following the destruction of Iran’s principal nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan during Operation Midnight Hammer in June.

Reporting earlier this week indicated that Iran may have moved advanced centrifuge equipment toward the mountain complex, while CNN separately reported that U.S. officials believe portions of Tehran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile may have survived the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaign.

The fortified site is believed to contain tunnels extending deeper underground than those at Fordow, the heavily damaged enrichment facility long considered among Iran’s most difficult nuclear targets. American and Israeli officials are reportedly concerned that surviving equipment, nuclear material, and personnel could eventually be consolidated inside the mountain if Tehran decides to rebuild its program.

Trump highlighted the site last week while warning that the United States retained additional military options against Iran.

Military disables tanker trying to get through Strait of Hormuz after repeated warnings

U.S. military forces disabled a tanker trying to get through the Strait of Hormuz on July 24, stopping what officials said was a deliberate attempt to run a regional blockade after the crew repeatedly ignored warnings.

This strike marks one of twelve forced turnarounds of ships that attempted to breach the blockade and were subsequently redirected away from the Strait of Hormuz, the military said.

The military fired into the engine room of the M/T Lavine stopping the ship in its tracks, Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for CENTCOM told the New York Times. “The ship is no longer transiting to Iran,” Hawkins said.

“As of July 25, CENTCOM has redirected 12 commercial vessels trying to run the blockade, disabled 2 that didn’t comply, and boarded 2 to ensure total compliance,” the combat command said in a statement on X.

Hawkins emphasized that the crew had been warned after four previous attempts to circumvent the blockade.

The move comes as President Trump called off a major escalation and reportedly paused after the 13th consecutive night of strikes, reportedly because of a diminished stockpile of antimissile interceptors, according to the New York Times.

American forces boarded the tanker M/T Charminar in the Arabian Sea to complete a compliance inspection — to ensure that the ship is not carrying prohibited goods — and after passing examination the ship is continuing on its voyage.

The military also released supporting video footage showing the U.S. naval operations in action.

The approximately 42-second clip posted to X begins on an aircraft carrier flight deck with helicopters preparing for launch.

Houthis Are Attacking Red Sea Ships But Letting China’s Through

A pair of Chinese oil tankers exited the Red Sea together on Thursday with apparent permission from Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who claimed attacks against two Saudi ships just hours earlier.

Vessel-tracking data reviewed by Newsweek showed the very large crude carriers Xin Long Yang and Cosnew Lake sailed through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait into the Gulf of Aden while announcing Chinese crew on board.

Both belong to China’s state-owned COSCO Shipping, and each was carrying about 2 million barrels of crude oil loaded at Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port, according to LSEG data.

They were the first known transits from Saudi waters since the Iran-allied Houthis, known officially as Ansar Allah, announced a maritime blockade against Saudi Arabia beginning this week over the kingdom’s military intervention in Yemen.

Houthis Make Exception for China

Vessel data showed both Chinese ships made U-turns earlier this week at the start of the Houthi operation but later continued their southward journeys on Wednesday. Later the same day, Houthi forces said they fired missiles and drones at two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea as part of their blockade.

At least one of the vessels was struck 80 nautical miles off Al Shuqaiq, a town in southwestern Saudi Arabia, said the British military-run United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations.

Saudi state news reports identified the ship as the tanker Encelia, which had sailed from Jeddah port and remains stopped in the southern Red Sea, data from the MarineTraffic website showed.

Cichen Shen, an analyst with the specialist shipping industry outlet Lloyd’s List, said Chinese vessels “appear to retain partial safe passage through Houthi-controlled waters” despite the fresh attacks.

Iran’s leaders turn on each other as hardliners push for wider conflict

WASHINGTON — Iran’s leaders are fighting each other almost as much as they’re battling the West, with some senior politicians scrambling to save US talks while the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leans into the renewed war, regional sources told The Post.

With Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei out of public view, there’s no one left to force the rival factions back into line — meaning the future of the conflict may now be decided by a power struggle in Tehran, not by Washington.

The growing divide has exposed what the sources describe as two competing centers of power inside Tehran: civilian leaders trying to preserve a fragile diplomatic track and military hardliners determined to keep up pressure through confrontation.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf want to keep dialogue with the US alive and prevent the fighting from spiraling into another full-scale regional war, the sources said.

But their authority has steadily eroded, one regional source familiar with Iran’s internal dynamics told The Post.

“They can sign [agreements], but they can’t stop the IRGC from acting or parliament from legislating around them,” the person said.

Instead of winning internal political battles, the IRGC has increasingly created “facts on the ground” through military action, the source said, while hardline lawmakers move afterward to enshrine those actions into law.

“The hardliners don’t need to win internal arguments,” the source said. “They create facts on the ground … and get parliament to legalize them after the fact.”

“The shift is real — now it’s becoming law, which is much harder to reverse.”

That distinction — between the politicians publicly speaking about diplomacy and the security establishment making decisions on the battlefield — is key, according to Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program.

“Yes, there are politicians who occasionally come out, including even Iran’s foreign minister, who talk about dialogue,” Taleblu told The Post. “But those driving the train, those with their finger on the trigger, those making some of the most important decisions continue to talk and act like escalation is what will secure their survival, not engagement.”

Iran flew commanders, missile gear to Houthi rebels in Yemen: report

Iran sent men and military hardware to its Houthi terrorist proxies before the group began attacking oil tankers in the Red Sea — partially closing the “Gate of Tears” strait and opening a second front in the battle to keep crucial Middle East shipping lanes open.

Iran flew Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, military advisers and missile and drone gear into Yemen ahead of the overnight strikes on two ships in the Red Sea, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Houthis’ attacks — and previous warnings issued by the group — have already caused several ships to turn back along the critical trade route through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the wider ocean.

Iran has also crippled passage through the Strait of Hormuz, which lies on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula and allows passage out of the Persian Gulf. It previously carried 20% of the world’s oil.

The Houthis’ attacks on two Saudi oil tankers on Wednesday sent Brent crude oil surging past $100 a barrel for the first time since May.

President Trump vowed to hold Iran accountable for any more attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea.

“Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves, who I am very disappointed with,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Brent crude rose by some 7% to $100.74 a barrel by Thursday morning marking a dramatic 40% gain in the key benchmark this month.

Iranian foreign minister, pro-regime media threaten Kyiv with ‘ballistic missiles’: ‘All of Ukraine is within reach’

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi threatened to attack Ukraine Saturday — raising the prospect of a broader escalation of war in the Middle East.

Araghchi claimed an Iranian merchant ship was among the vessels struck by Kyiv in the Caspian Sea, asserting the Islamic Republic now had the right to retaliate.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in accordance with the fundamental principles and rules of international law, especially the principle of legitimate defense, will not hesitate to defend its national interests and security,” Abbas threatened in a statement Saturday evening.

“The responsibility for the consequences of the adventurism of the head of the Ukrainian regime will be borne by that regime and its supporters and instigators.”

Araghchi — who also purported his country had “never intervened in the Russia-Ukraine conflict” despite sending weapons to Putin — claimed the vessel exploded, killing one sailor aboard and injuring another.

His threats echoed those made earlier in the day by Iranian media.

“A gentle reminder to Mr. Zelensky: All of Ukraine is within reach of Iran’s ballistic missiles,” Middle East Spectator, a pro-regime channel, wrote on Telegram, along with a map showing the range of Iran’s “super-heavy” Khorramshahr-4 missiles.

“Although it would be a waste of good missiles,” the account quipped.

It all came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Saturday that Kyiv struck Russian ships carrying military cargo between Iran and Russia in the Caspian Sea.

The waterway connects the two strategic allies.

“We achieved very strong results with long‑range strikes in the Caspian Sea – including vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran,” Zelensky wrote on X.

Ukraine’s Security Service said the sanctioned cargo ships transported military cargo between Iran and Russia — but it’s not yet known who was supplying whom.

Russia, Stretched by Ukraine, Pulls All Warships From Mediterranean Sea

Russia has no warships deployed in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time in a decade, the latest example of how much Moscow is exerting itself after almost four and a half years of full-scale war in Ukraine.

The last two Russian military ships in the Mediterranean Sea left the area on June 26, 2026, a NATO official told Newsweek, speaking on a condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject matter.

The ships' exit marks the first time since 2016 that Russia's military hasn't had a naval presence in the Mediterranean, and it points to the strain Moscow is under with its bruising war effort in eastern Europe, as the conflict churns on with no end in sight.

The departure is also an indication of the resources the Kremlin has for months expended in escort missions for Russian merchant vessels, including along routes near European coastlines.

Russia has historically kept ships in the Mediterranean as a counterbalance to NATO dominance along the northern edge of the sea, swapping vessels in and out of the Syrian port of Tartus, Russia's only naval support facility on the Mediterranean. Moscow yanked most of its forces from Syria after Bashar al-Assad, the country's former dictator and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, fled in late 2024.

The Gorshkov, a Russian navy frigate, passed out of the area alongside the Pashin, a replenishment oil tanker, at the end of June, according to NATO intelligence.

Military vessels often don't broadcast their location, as commercial vessels are required to do. No tracking data was available for the Gorshkov, but the Pashin last pinged while moving out of the Mediterranean, past Gibraltar, on June 26.

The Gorshkov is kitted out with long-range Zircon missiles, which Russia touts as hypersonic and difficult to intercept.

Russia Wants 30,000 More North Korean Troops for Ukraine War, Zelensky Says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russia is preparing to bring an additional 30,000 North Korean troops into the war against Ukraine, a development that would significantly expand Pyongyang's direct military involvement if confirmed.

"We also see Russia’s cooperation with North Korea. Russia wants to receive another 30,000 troops from North Korea," Zelensky said in his nightly video address, adding that preparations to receive the personnel have been underway since June in Russia's Voronezh region.

The assertion follows previous deployments under the deepening military alliance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Reuters previously reported that an estimated 14,000 North Korean personnel were deployed to Russia's Kursk region in 2024 to assist in repelling a Ukrainian cross-border incursion.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry, along with the North Korean Embassy in Beijing and North Korea's U.N. mission in New York, for comment.

North Korean Troops Already Fighting for Moscow

A deployment of 30,000 additional troops would represent a major escalation in North Korea's support for Russia and could more than double the size of Pyongyang's known military contribution to the war.

The development would also reinforce concerns among the United States and its allies that North Korea is gaining valuable battlefield experience while receiving military and technological assistance from Russia in return.

Zelensky argued that the partnership extends beyond the war in Ukraine.

"This is a threat not only to Ukraine," he said in his Saturday night address. "Russia is helping North Korea learn how to wage war, improve its weapons and gain real combat experience in using them." He added that such cooperation poses risks for countries across Asia that are within range of North Korean missiles.

Ukraine strikes set fire to ‘Russia’s Amazon,’ marking the 7th attack on chain suspected of supplying Moscow’s military

Kyiv ramped up its tailored attacks on “Russia’s Amazon,” striking another Wildberries warehouse Saturday — the seventh attack this week on the online giant it accuses of supplying Moscow’s military operations.

Ukraine fired more than 300 drones into Russian territory Saturday — including toward the Wildberries warehouse in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city.

Videos from the scene showed employees frantically fleeing the logistics hub, as vehicles went up in flames in the parking lot, with thick plumes of black smoke towering over the area.

Operations were suspended for at least four hours, according to the company, who tried to claim it was a “planned evacuation.”

Wildberries, which has more than 200 logistics facilities across Russia and occupied Crimea, has emerged as a new target of Kyiv over the past week.

The online retailer sells items that can be used by the military, like body armor, helmets and radios, with some even marked as “tested in the SVO” or “SVO fighters’ choice” — the Russian acronym for “special military operation,” the Kremlin’s euphemism for its brutal war on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also accused Wildberries, which has $32 billion in sales volume, of supplying parts like fiber-optic cables that are used in drones.

“It supplies components for the occupier’s aircraft and missile systems, which are used, in particular, in the massive attacks against our cities and communities,” Zelensky wrote on X Friday to justify the deblitating attacks on the retailer.

The devastating strike on Wildberries’ Yekaterinburg warehouse also forced athletes and spectators at the Russian Athletics Championships, which was being held in the city, to leave the nearby open stadium and take shelter.

“This has never happened to me at competitions,” said Russian track and field athlete Anastasia Fedonina.

“In everyday life ‌it ⁠has. Sometimes, even during training, we’ll have drone alerts and sirens going off.”

Meanwhile, Russia killed at least 11 Ukrainians, including three children, and wounded 70 more across six cities Saturday, firing two missiles and 157 drones overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

Russian attack kills 3 in Ukraine as Romania downs second drone in 2 days

A Russian drone strike killed three people in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, local officials said Saturday, while Romania shot down a drone over its airspace for the second time in two days.

Sumy regional head Oleh Hryhorov said Saturday that a large fire broke out when a drone struck a “civilian facility,” adding that the victims were drivers for private Ukrainian postal and courier service Nova Poshta.

In Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, a Russian drone attack Friday night hit a shopping center, causing a fire that spread over a 500-square-meter area, causing several injuries, regional head Ivan Fedorov said.

A major Russian attack Friday on a site near Kyiv that hosted a defense industry event killed at least 10 people and wounded nearly 100 others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in his evening address late Friday that intelligence assessments indicated that Russia was preparing missiles for a large attack on Ukraine, saying there were indications that this could happen in the next 48 hours.

Meanwhile, Romania’s defense ministry said Saturday its forces “safely shot down” a drone breaching its airspace in an “unpopulated area” near the Ukrainian border.

Writing on Facebook, Romanian President Nicușor Dan said the drone was “shot down by a Romanian pilot from an F-16 aircraft.”

Saturday’s interception came after a drone was shot down around Padina, northeast of the Romanian capital, Bucharest, on Friday.

A series of drone incursions from both Russia and Ukraine have hit Romania and other NATO members since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

INTERNATIONAL

FBI ‘Most Wanted’ fraud suspect arrested in Jamaica over alleged $32M COVID-19 relief scheme

One of the FBI’s most wanted alleged COVID-19 fraud fugitives has been returned to the United States after authorities captured her in Jamaica, where FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital she had been living under the fake identity “Harley Newman” while evading charges tied to a $32 million pandemic relief fraud scheme.

Elaine Angene Escoe, 41, arrived back in South Florida Thursday after Jamaican authorities arrested her following a federal manhunt.

Prosecutors allege she helped fraudulently obtain more than $32 million in taxpayer-funded COVID-19 relief funds before fleeing the country after failing to appear in federal court.

Escoe was indicted in 2025 on charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of money laundering, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Federal prosecutors said a judge issued an arrest warrant after Escoe failed to appear in court in May 2025.

Authorities allege she fled to Jamaica, where she was later located and arrested after the FBI received a tip.

“This Most Wanted Fraudster allegedly obtained tens of millions in COVID-19 relief, stealing critical resources from legitimate businesses during a national crisis,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News Digital.

“She fled the country believing she could escape justice but ultimately could not,” he continued. “Those who exploit taxpayer-funded programs will be held accountable by this Department of Justice, no matter how long it takes or where they attempt to hide.”

Patel called Escoe’s arrest another milestone in the FBI’s international fraud crackdown, saying she is the fourth alleged “Most Wanted Fraudster” captured in the past five weeks.

“The historic success of the ‘Most Wanted Fraudster’ list continues as the FBI and our partners just captured our fourth Most Wanted Fraudster in 5 weeks, and yet another high value target returned to the US by this FBI,” Patel said. “Elaine Angene Escoe, on the run since May 2025, was captured in Jamaica while living under a fake identity of ‘Harley Newman’ — and returned to the United States today to face justice.”

French Wildfires at ‘Never Seen Before’ Level, Prime Minister Warns

More than 300,000 people have fled their homes as catastrophic wildfires—which began in mid-July amid severe heatwaves—tear through France and Spain, overwhelming emergency responders and prompting officials to declare historic disaster measures.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu warned the blazes have reached "a level that has never been seen before."

The crisis has been fueled by extreme heat, severe dry spells, and high winds—conditions scientists link to rising global temperatures that are lengthening fire seasons and intensifying blazes worldwide.

France Mobilizes Its Military to Combat Flames

The majority of French evacuations have centered on the southwestern Gironde region near the city of Bordeaux, where fast-moving flames that broke out on July 22 have forced roughly 220,000 people from their homes.

Another 55,000 people were evacuated from around the city overnight into Sunday, with local authorities partially shuttering a major highway leading into Bordeux and stopping train services.

Newsweek has reached out to the Gironde Fire Service for comment via email on Saturday.

Lecornu stated on social media that the fire near Bordeaux is generating its own erratic wind patterns, creating a phenomenon specialists have "never before encountered."

The French government is doubling its military deployment to support firefighting operations, increasing the number of soldiers from 500 to more than 1,000, alongside police and emergency resources. Officials have also dispatched 1.5 million protective masks to Gironde to combat heavy smoke.

France deployed an A400M cargo aircraft capable of dropping 20 tons of retardant to battle the flames. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told reporters on Saturday that nearly 378 square miles have burned across France this year, marking a historic record, with over 120 square miles consumed in Gironde alone.

Nuñez said Saturday that European countries, including Romania, Croatia, Portugal, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Switzerland, have sent personnel and equipment to help combat the wildfires, in an X post thanking their European neighbors. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a Saturday X post, "Europe stands alongside France and Spain in the face of the devastating wildfires ravaging them."

Lecornu scheduled an emergency cabinet meeting Saturday afternoon.

China’s Spies Surge Worldwide, but Some are Getting Caught

When an American journalist pleaded guilty in June to acting as an agent for the Chinese government, it was just the latest in a string of cases highlighting Beijing’s global intelligence activities—and part of a broader pattern of Chinese espionage-related arrests and convictions.

U.S. prosecutors said Thomas Pauken II worked for Chinese state media, including Xinhua, but was paid at least $100,000 to act as an intermediary for the Chinese government. “By his own admission, not only did Thomas Pauken attempt to infiltrate U.S. political circles at the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security, but he gathered intelligence on his American targets and reported it back to his Chinese intelligence handlers,” said Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. Pauken’s guilty plea is just one of a growing number of cases.

A month earlier, Eileen Wang, mayor of Arcadia, California, agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for China. Per the Justice Department, Wang—who was elected to the city council in November 2022 and became mayor in February 2026—worked at the direction and control of Chinese government officials from late 2020 through 2022, promoting Beijing’s interests in the U.S. through a website aimed at the Chinese American community.

The Chinese Communist Party is “flooding the zone” with spies as it seeks political and economic advantage over a West that it perceives as weakening, experts told Newsweek. Report after report has emerged of suspected spy activity from Norway to Germany, plus other liberal democracies such as South Korea.

“We’re talking about a vast espionage machine by China,” said I-Chung Lai, president of Taiwan’s The Prospect Foundation think tank. “What China does is they send a lot of people, collect every piece of information they can have and assemble it back together in their headquarters,” he said.

In Norway, Chinese citizens were arrested in May in two separate cases of suspected spy-related activity. In one, a woman allegedly attempted to import a 22-ton satellite receiver to an island that conducts sensitive rocket launches, according to Norway’s counterintelligence authority. Lai said that he was not privy to details but thought that case could be the work of a professional linked to China’s People’s Liberation Army. “To import that equipment you need to know how to assemble it, use it, and that basically means that that woman would...probably would be a trained PLA soldier,” he said.

May also saw a married German couple arrested on suspicion of working for an unnamed Chinese intelligence agency that was seeking sensitive science and technology of “military use,” German prosecutors said. The same month, two Chinese nationals were convicted in South Korea after photographing Korean-U.S. military bases and civilian airports—the first conviction of foreign nationals under the Asian nation’s general espionage provision.

So why the surge in cases? China believes the U.S. and other democracies are struggling with declining domestic cohesion, especially as President Donald Trump’s leadership drives wedges in the traditional Western alliance, giving Beijing opportunities for greater influence.