Three Americans have been arrested over their alleged involvement in a failed coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Video shows what is thought to be two of the men groveling for mercy on the ground as they were surrounded by government forces following a shootout in the capital Kinshasa on Sunday.

Reports in local media suggested the arrested men were CIA operatives although the US ambassador in the city was keen to distance the US from any involvement.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) armed forces repelled an attempted coup d’etat involving Congolese and foreign fighters on Sunday morning, a DRC army spokesperson said in a televised address..The army announces the arrest of American mercenaries. pic.twitter.com/Lfsv5FvINw

— African News feed. (@africansinnews) May 19, 2024

‘I am shocked by the events this morning and very worried by the reports of American citizens allegedly being involved,’ Lucy Tamlyn, the US ambassador to the DRC, posted on X, formerly Twitter.

‘Rest assured that we are cooperating with authorities in DRC to the fullest extent possible, as they investigate these criminal acts and hold accountable any American citizen involved.’

The United Nations’ stabilization mission in the DRC said that its chief, Bintou Keita, condemned the incidents in the strongest terms and offered her support to the Congolese authorities in a post on X.

The DR Congo military named the coup leader as Christian Malanga, 41, a US educated former refugee who was a ‘naturalized American’ and had been ‘definitively neutralized’ by the security forces.

His son Marcel was among those accused of taking part and seized by the military as they retook control.

Footage on social media showed a passport allegedly seized from one of the Americans bearing the name Benjamin Zalman-Polun, a 36-year-old born in Maryland.

Zalman-Polun reportedly has a background as a cannabis entrepreneur and had been previously linked to Malanga.

The military said it thwarted the ‘attempted coup’ involving ‘foreigners and Congolese’ near the offices of President Felix Tshisekedi in Kinshasa.

It happened in the early hours of the morning outside the residence of Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe, in the Gombe area in the north of the capital, near the Palais de la Nation that houses the president’s offices, a spokesman said.

‘An attempted coup d’etat has been stopped by the defense and security forces,’ said General Sylvain Ekenge in a message broadcast on national television.

‘Around 50, including three American citizens – were arrested and are currently undergoing interrogation by the specialized services of the Armed Forces,’ Ekenge told Reuters.

Shots were also heard near the Palais de la Nation at the time of the coup attempt, according to a number of sources.

Later on Sunday, army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge said a British man were part of the group involved in the operation.

Malanga, who went to school in Salt Lake City, posted a video to Facebook hours before the attack showing a group of heavily armed paramilitaries.

Another American voice can be heard, and one of the men seen begging for mercy in the later video, is pictured with a US flag on his uniform.

Videos on social media showed men in fatigues arriving at the Palais de la Nation, brandishing flags of Zaire – the name of the Democratic Republic of Congo under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was overthrown in 1997.

‘The time has arrived, long live Zaire, long live the children of Mobutu,’ a man who appeared to be the head of the group said in Lingala, a language spoken in parts of the DRC.

‘Felix has fallen… we are victorious,’ he added.

The group was made up of ‘several nationalities’, Ekenge said, and that four attackers including Malanga were killed.

‘We also have a naturalized British subject, the number two of the group,’ the spokesman added.

Kamerhe and his family were not harmed in the attack but two police officers looking after them were killed, said a source close to the minister.

The group had planned to attack the home of the new Prime Minister Judith Suminwa, and the residence of Defense Minister Jean-Pierre Bemba.

But they ‘could not identify the home’ of Suminwa and had not been able to find Bemba at his residence.

France’s ambassador had reported automatic weapon fire in the area, urging nationals to avoid it.

The central-African country has been racked by violence from paramilitary groups attempting to control its mineral-rich resources.

In February a US representative to the UN slammed the DRC for collaboration with the FDLR militia, warning it threatened all-out conflict with neighboring Rwanda.

‘We condemn any group that espouses genocide ideology and recognize that the FDLR remains a significant security threat to Rwanda,’ Robert Wood told the UN Security Council.

The attack took place just hours before the US announced it would comply with an order by the government of Niger to remove its troops from the West African country by the middle of September.

Last month neighboring Chad threatened to expel US troops amid alarm about waning US influence on the continent in the face of aggressive Chinese and Russian diplomacy.

But the US has a long history of clandestine military operations in Africa including in Congo where the CIA conspired to assassinate Patrick Lumumba, the country’s first democratically elected leader who was killed in 1961.

🇨🇩 Christian Malanga entrain d’implorer Dieu lors de l’attaque de ce matin au palais de la Nation : « Dieu tu nous a pas menti, Nous t’implorons Dieu, le Zaïre est là. Dieu, tu es un miséricordieux, écoute nos pleures » pic.twitter.com/yeRXUmX4Fb

— The Voice Of Congo (@VoiceOfCongo) May 19, 2024

The Intercept reported in 2022 that US trained officers had led seven coups attempts in the previous 18 months targeting countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Mauritania, and Gambia.

In Congolese capital certain streets near the Palais de la Nation remained closed to traffic on Sunday, but the situation appeared calm, AFP journalists reported.

‘I’m a little afraid to move around like that in Gombe, there aren’t many people… But I have to sell my goods,’ bread-seller Jean-Mbuta said.

Tshisekedi was re-elected at the end of December when he received more than 70 percent of votes in the first round.

The parties backing him won around 90 percent of seats in the parliamentary elections held the same day.

But he is yet to form a government some five months after the elections.

Kamerhe on April 23 was named as a candidate for president of the National Assembly, the DRC’s main legislative body.

Update:

The crash site of the helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has been located, Iranian state news agency IRNA and semi-official news outlet ISNA reported on Monday.

The helicopter crashed in a remote part of the country on Sunday.

As president of Iran, Raisi is the second most powerful individual in the Islamic Republic’s political structure after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. He became president in a historically uncompetitive election in 2021, and he has overseen a period of intensified repression of dissent in a nation convulsed by youth-led protests against religious clerical rule.

The crash comes at a fraught moment in the Middle East, with war raging in Gaza and weeks after Iran launched a drone-and-missile attack on Israel in response to a deadly strike on its diplomatic compound in Damascus.

Here’s what to know:

Others on board: Nine people were onboard the helicopter, including the country’s foreign minister, and their status remains unknown as rescue operations continue through the early hours on Monday.

Rescue: Rescuers are contending with dense fog and extreme cold in the country’s remote East Azerbaijan Province. A Turkish drone had located a heat source but have not reached the crash site nor located the helicopter. Turkey and Russia have said they are sending aircraft to help in search operations.

Original:

A helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed while visiting a northern region and his condition is currently unknown, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported Sunday.

The aircraft, which was also carrying Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, came down in East Azerbaijan Province and emergency crews have so far been unable to reach it due to foggy conditions, IRNA said. It is unclear what the exact status is of Raisi’s helicopter.

The Iranian armed forces have been in the area of the crash since the early hours of Sunday, Chief of Staff of Iranian Armed Forces Mohammad Bagheri said. Twenty rescue teams and drones were sent to the area where the helicopter came down.

Raisi and Amir Abdollahian were among a group of dignitaries onboard the helicopter returning from a ceremony for an opening of a dam on Iran’s border with Azerbaijan when it “crashed upon landing in Varzaqan region on Sunday,” IRNA English reported.

IRNA also reported, citing locals, the helicopter crashed in the Dizmar Forest area between the villages of Ozi and Pir Davood. Residents in northern Varzeqan, East Azerbaijan Province, said they heard noises from the area, it added.

Iran’s interior minister Ahmad Vahidi said one of the helicopters was forced to make a hard landing due to foggy weather conditions.

“Now different rescue groups are moving towards the area but given that it is foggy and the unsuitable weather and the conditions it may take some time until they reach where the helicopter is,” said Vahidi during a televised address posted on Telegram by Iranian state news agency IRNA.

He added that there had been some contact with the passengers on the helicopter, “but given the area is a bit complicated, making contact is difficult and we are waiting inshallah for rescue groups to quickly reach the location of this accident where the helicopter is and give us more information.”

“From the beginning of this incident being reported regarding the President’s helicopter, Red Crescent Relief Forces and auxiliary military and law enforcement forces have started a widespread effort to find this helicopter,” Tasnim news agency reported.

“Some of the president’s companions on this helicopter were able to communicate with Central Headquarters, raising hopes that the incident could have ended without casualties,” Tasnim added.

The helicopter was part of a convoy of three helicopters. Two of those helicopters were carrying ministers and officials who arrived at their destination safely, according to Tasnim.

Follow live updates.

In an interview with “60 Minutes” airing this Sunday, Pope Francis takes aim at his “conservative critics” in the United States, reportedly saying a conservative is someone who “clings to something and does not want to see beyond that.”

“It is a suicidal attitude,” the pope said as reported by “60 Minutes,” which released a brief clip of the upcoming interview conducted by CBS’ Nora O’Donnell.

“Because one thing is to take tradition into account, to consider situations from the past, but quite another is to be closed up inside a dogmatic box.”

The Pope addresses his conservative critics in the church.

“Conservative is one who clings to something and does not want to see beyond that. It is a suicidal attitude,” says Pope Francis. This Sunday on 60 Minutes, the Pope sits down with @NorahODonnell. https://t.co/mEN4CWeXMW pic.twitter.com/HPYgVm4kIp

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) May 16, 2024

Francis has occasionally addressed criticism leveled against him during his more than 10 years as pontiff, saying in August 2023 that the U.S. Catholic Church is characterized by “a very strong reactionary attitude.” He has taken actions recently to limit the influence of some of his most prominent clerical critics in the U.S., reportedly taking some Vatican privileges from Cardinal Raymond Burke and removing Bishop Joseph Strickland, a frequent online critic of the pope, from his post as bishop of Tyler, Texas.

According to CBS, the pope in the recent interview “spoke candidly with O’Donnell about the wars in Israel and Gaza, Ukraine, and the migration crises around the world and on the U.S. southern border.”

“The wide-ranging conversation also touches upon the Church’s handling of its own sexual abuse scandals; Francis’ deep commitment to inclusiveness within the Church; the backlash against his papacy from certain corners of U.S. Catholicism; and an exploration of his thinking on surrogate parenthood,” the network says, adding that the interview marks “the first time a pope has given an in-depth, one-on-one interview to a U.S. broadcast network.”

The full interview, conducted April 24, will air as part of “60 Minutes” on May 19 from 7-8 p.m. ET on CBS and will be available on Paramount+. More of the interview will air in an hourlong prime-time special on Monday, May 20, at 10 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+.

The interview comes ahead of the first-ever World Children’s Day, May 25–26, a new initiative by Pope Francis sponsored by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education in collaboration with the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio, the Auxilium Cooperative, and the Italian Football Federation. The Vatican is expecting children from more than 100 countries to travel to Rome for the weekend event with the pope.

Police in Savannah, Georgia, are investigating a shooting that injured 11 people in the city’s downtown area on Saturday night.

The shooting broke out just before midnight in Ellis Square, a fixture of Savannah’s historic district and a popular tourist attraction.

Several precincts responded at 11:55 p.m. to reports of gunfire in the area, the Savannah Police Department said in a news release issued Sunday morning.

At the time, detectives were probing the incident and had interviewed witnesses as part of their investigation, which was still ongoing.

Savannah police have not identified suspects or announced any arrests in the case.

Everyone hurt in the shooting, including the people who suffered gunshot wounds, are adults, according to the police department, and some were transported from the scene to Memorial Health University Medical Center. P

olice did not share details about the nature or extent of those injuries but said in Sunday’s news release that “as of now, no deaths have occurred because of the incident.”

They told CBS affiliate WTOC that at least 10 people were believed to be hurt as a result of the gunfire.

All 11 people received treatment overnight for their injuries, which police said were not considered life-threatening, WTOC reported.

Police have asked anyone with information about the shooting to contact Crime Stoppers at 912-234-2020.

Rishi Sunak will apologise to infected-blood victims today, as a devastating report blames successive governments and the NHS for the scandal.

The Prime Minister will issue a formal apology on behalf of the Government for the handling of a scandal which has claimed more than 3,000 lives and continues to wreck countless others.

Tomorrow ministers will set out plans for a massive compensation scheme, which could cost taxpayers more than £10 billion.

Whitehall sources expect NHS chief Amanda Pritchard to issue her own apology for the worst treatment disgrace in the history of the health service.

The moves come as former High Court judge Sir Brian Langstaff today publishes the long-awaited findings of a public inquiry which was launched in 2018, with an estimated 710 more victims having died since the hearings began.

Both the Department of Health and the NHS are expected to face heavy criticism for continuing to allow the use of imported blood products for years after the first warnings that they could be contaminated with viruses such as HIV and hepatitis C.

They will also be savaged for their evasive response to campaigners seeking the truth, in what victims believe to have been a concerted cover-up lasting decades.

More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C at the hands of the NHS after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. The tainted products were imported cheaply from the US where blood was being collected from paid donors such as prisoners, the homeless and drug addicts.

Most of those infected were people who received treatment for blood disorders such as haemophilia and those who had blood transfusions.

Kate Burt, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: ‘The contaminated blood scandal has been a stain on our nation for too long.

‘For the sake of the thousands of lives lost to this disaster, the Government must accept all the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations and begin work immediately to rebuild trust in our public services. Only a commitment to deliver radical reform and to treat those it serves with compassion and respect will begin to end this shameful episode in our country’s history.’

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt yesterday described the episode as ‘the worst scandal of my lifetime’ and said the families ‘have got every right to be incredibly angry that generations of politicians, including me when I was health secretary, have not acted fast enough to address the scandal’.

Mr Hunt has signed off on the compensation scheme, although the final bill will not be known until a new committee has established a framework for payments.

Labour health spokesman Wes Streeting said he expected Sir Brian to criticise ‘successive governments’ over the issue.

Mr Streeting said an incoming Labour administration would honour any compensation deal agreed by the Government, adding: ‘Everyone has got their responsibility to bear in this appalling scandal and we have got a shared responsibility to put it right.’

Writing in the Sunday Times, Sir Keir Starmer said the scandal was ‘one of the darkest periods in our country’s modern history’ and a reminder that ‘the NHS is not a shrine to be worshipped at’.

Downing Street was tight-lipped about the content of the PM’s response last night, but he is expected to apologise on behalf of the Government. Appearing in front of the inquiry last summer, the PM said the ‘appalling tragedy’ should never have happened.

Lauren Palmer, who was orphaned by the scandal aged just nine, said she was ‘still sceptical’ about the Government’s commitment to compensate all those affected. ‘If they do, the other question is how long will they take and will they use the election to drag things out further or even worse not do anything at all?’

The scandal began in the early 1970s when new blood clotting products were developed to treat people with bleeding disorders.

A shortage of blood in the UK led ministers to source cheap batches from the US where supplies relied on high-risk donors, including drug addicts. But the products were made by pooling the blood plasma from tens of thousands of donors and a single contaminated donation could be enough to infect an entire batch.

By the mid-1970s there were repeated warnings that the US products carried an increased risk. The inquiry heard that by 1983, Department of Health doctors acknowledged privately that it ‘may be possible’ that Aids was being transmitted in this way. But the inquiry was told that ministers were not informed and continued to insist publicly that there was ‘no conclusive proof’ of a problem.

About 6,000 people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders were treated with contaminated products. Around 1,250 were infected with HIV, including 380 children. Some unintentionally infected their partners. Fewer than 250 are still alive.

Others hit by the scandal include thousands given blood transfusions between 1970 and 1991. High-profile victims include Body Shop founder Anita Roddick and Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies’s mother Sheila, who both contracted hepatitis C following transfusions of infected blood.

My father’s warnings were ignored by health chiefs

The son of a top blood specialist has told how health officials dismissed his warnings about the safety of new transfusions in the early days of the scandal.

Dr Nick Ibbotson told the Daily Mail that his father Richard thought it was ‘crackers’ to switch from blood sourced from single donors to the product called Factor VIII, which pooled the plasma donations of multiple people.

Richard Ibbotson, the former deputy director of West Midlands Blood Transfusion Service, warned it was ‘outrageous’ that haemophilia patients were given products from high-risk donors as early as the mid-1970s.

He was particularly furious that prisoners in the US were able to make money out of the blood-harvesting scheme.

Dr Ibbotson, a retired GP of Richmond, North Yorkshire, said: ‘My father was not an angry man, but when Factor VIII happened, I remember him being quite vociferous. He said we were being stupid and were building up enormous problems.

‘He said: “We’ve got this new virus we don’t know much about but I can’t think of a better way of spreading it than getting a load of blood samples from a country that pays its donors – it’s madness, it’s crackers.” ‘He protested frequently about the risks of Hep B and Hep C but was overruled by the Department of Health. My father was very concerned over many years about importing blood products from the US, where donors were paid. He would say that what was happening was outrageous.

‘I know the concerns that medics were raising, but there was nothing they could do because the people at the top, in the Government, weren’t listening.’

The looming November rematch between President Biden and former President Trump could be decided by just a handful of states.

Six months out from Election Day, all eyes are on seven toss-up states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — where 93 electoral votes will be up for grabs this fall.

Biden won all but North Carolina back in 2020, but recent polling suggests Trump has an edge over the incumbent in several of those battlegrounds this cycle.

The race for the White House could come down to these swing states:

Arizona

Biden won Arizona last cycle by roughly a third of a percentage point, making it the first Democratic presidential win in the Republican stronghold since the ’90s.

But Trump is now up roughly 6 points over Biden in Arizona, according to Decision Desk HQ/The Hill averages, where issues surrounding the border are set to play a key role in November.

Meanwhile, Democrats are looking to the Grand Canyon State, where 11 electoral college votes are up for grabs, as one of several places where issues around reproductive rights could fuel turnout to boost the party.

The state just repealed a Civil War-era, near-total abortion ban, and organizers are working to get a measure on the ballot that would enshrine protections for the procedure.

Republicans make up the biggest group of registered Arizona voters, but voters unaffiliated with either major party outnumber Democrats in the state, according to voter registration statistics from last month.

Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Democratic Senate candidate in the state, is leading his Republican rival Kari Lake in the closely watched race to replace Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and running ahead of Biden, according to New York Times polling. Gallego scored 45 percent to Lake’s 41 percent, while Biden brought in 42 percent to Trump’s 49 percent.

Georgia

Biden flipped Georgia blue for the first time in decades back in 2020, beating Trump by fewer than 12,000 votes.

But as the pair ready for a rematch in the Peach State, the 2024 race lacks marquee down-ballot races and signs of big turnout that helped boost Biden four years ago.

There are 16 electoral votes on Georgia’s table in November, and polling averages from DDHQ/The Hill put Trump up around 6 points, around 49 percent to Biden’s 43 percent.

The Times polling shows Trump with even more of an advantage, putting the Republican ahead by 10 points.

Last cycle, Georgians surged to the polls to elect Democrat Jon Ossoff as the state’s first Jewish senator and the ​​Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) as the state’s first Black senator.

This year, the Republican primary saw double the turnout of the Democratic contest, and Biden will need to energize the state’s significant Black population amid signs that he’s struggling with the bloc nationwide.

Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R), who’s one of a few prominent Republicans backing Biden in November, has called for fellow Republicans not to “fall in line” with Trump. But it’s unclear if Biden will be able to repeat his success in the Peach State this November.

Michigan

In Michigan, a battleground Biden won by nearly 3 points back in 2020, the incumbent saw a significant protest vote push in the Democratic primary from progressives and Arab Americans, which inspired similar ballot-box boycotts in other states, like Wisconsin.

Arab Americans helped carry Biden to victory last cycle, and questions persist on whether the critical bloc will come back into his column after expressing anger in the primaries.

First lady Jill Biden paid a trip to the Great Lakes State this week, with Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes saying the visit is “proving the road to the White House runs through Michigan.”

Trump is up by 4 points in the state, according to DDHQ/The Hill averages. Fifteen electoral college votes are in play.

With its significant Arab American population and big student numbers, strategists say the presidential race in the Great Lakes State has the chance to be a notable bellwether for the 2024 race more broadly.

Nevada

Along with Arizona, Nevada could be another major Sun Belt swing state this November. Both states have notable Latino populations, as both candidates make a play for voters of color this fall.

Biden won by 2.4 percentage points in 2020. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton beat Trump in Nevada in 2016, also by a tight margin.

DDHQ/The Hill’s averages now show Trump with a lead of nearly 7 points. The New York Times polling put Biden behind by 12 points in a head-to-head, his worst showing among the battlegrounds in that survey.

Like in Arizona, a third-party contender in the Silver State could further erode support for the major-party candidates. It’s also another battleground where Democratic Senate candidates are doing better than the president: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) holds a 2-point advantage over Republican Sam Brown.

There are 6 electoral college votes on the table.

North Carolina

Though Biden swept most of the swing states in 2020, Trump won North Carolina by roughly 1.5 points after taking the state by a slightly bigger margin in 2016.

Biden’s campaign is now looking to flip North Carolina back into Democrats’ column, but it has acknowledged that “relentless effort” is needed to do so over the next six months.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said last month that he thinks Biden has a shot at winning the Tar Heel State. Former President Obama was the last Democrat to win it back in 2008. And Republicans are grappling with a potential political liability in gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has faced scrutiny for past controversial comments.

The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report rates North Carolina as Republican-leaning, while the other swing states are toss-ups.

There are 16 electoral college votes up for grabs. DDHQ/The Hill averages show Trump with a 4.6 point lead.

Pennsylvania

Last month’s primaries in Pennsylvania highlighted weak points for both Biden and Trump as they hurtle toward their November showdown.

Nikki Haley, who had dropped out of the race nearly two months earlier, received more than 150,000 Keystone State votes, coming close to 20 percent in several counties.

Though her numbers didn’t keep Trump from clinching the winner-take-all primary delegates, they served as a red flag for the former president in the key battleground.

On the other side of the aisle, Biden faced his own protest vote push, with “Abandon Biden” rallying voters to boycott the incumbent at the ballot box over concerns about the administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.

But, as with Nevada, there is a relatively popular Democratic senator running for reelection — in this case Bob Casey, who has consistently run ahead of Biden in polls, as well as his GOP rival, David McCormick.

DDHQ/The Hill averages put Biden behind by 1.7 points in the state he won by 1.2 points in 2020. Recent polling from The New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer shows Trump with a little more of an edge, up three points.

There are 19 electoral college votes up for grabs in Pennsylvania.

Wisconsin

Biden won Wisconsin by less than a percentage point during the 2020 cycle, and Trump now leads by less than 1 point, according to DDHQ/The Hill’s averages.

A Quinnipiac University poll released this month showed Biden’s lead over Trump in a Wisconsin head-to-head shrink from 6 points to just 1 point when third-party candidates were added into the mix, suggesting Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other contenders could serve as major spoilers.

Biden traveled to the Badger State earlier this month to tout a $3.3 billion investment by Microsoft to build a new artificial intelligence data center in the state — and to draw a contrast with a planned Trump-era investment that never materialized.

The Republican National Convention will be held this summer in Milwaukee, where Trump has hinted he could announce his running mate for 2024.

“It really is an important state for us. Wisconsin has to be won by us,” Trump told Scripps News in an interview this week. “We want to win it. If we win Wisconsin, I think we win the whole thing.”

Ten electoral college votes are in play in Wisconsin.

Famed white supremacist Nick Fuentes, who Elon Musk recently allowed to return to X, formerly Twitter, streamed LGBT pornography on his personal account but later suggested that a pro-Israel Telegram channel hacked his cozy channel.

In response to footage of the incident posted on X, Fuentes wrote, “This is getting desperate.

“My proprietary livestreaming site was hacked after my stream went offline by someone claiming to be IDF Unit 8200.

“The hacker took credit by [watermarking] the porn and leaving messages on the back end of the site.

“Easily disprovable nonsense,” he added.

In a statement, Fuentes claimed that the hackers had targeted other streamers in similar attacks.

This is getting desperate.

My proprietary livestreaming site was hacked after my stream went offline by someone claiming to be IDF Unit 8200.

The hacker took credit by watermaking the porn and leaving messages on the back end of the site.

Easily disprovable nonsense. pic.twitter.com/s5GKM2jW8x

— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) May 18, 2024

Fuentes acknowledged that the hack was likely not by the IDF but was connected to a Telegram account called “Am Israel Chai.”

IDF Unit 8200 is an intelligence unit that engages in cyber warfare. However, the unit has not taken responsibility for the broadcasting of the pornography on Fuentes’s stream.

Reactions to the stream

The stream, whether an accident or hack, has been the source of discussion over social media.

Former congressman George Santos, who was the center of his own controversy after it was discovered he had made a number of falsehoods about being Jewish and his professional background, posted on X “Nick Fuentes streamed gay porn last night on his show. Now the GAYPERS are claiming it was a mossad hack! For the love of god! GAYPERS JUST ACCEPT YOUR ZADDY FUENTS IS A H***!”

Nick Fuentes streamed gay porn last night on his show. Now the GAYPERS are claiming it was a mossad hack!

For the love of god! GAYPERS JUST ACCEPT YOUR ZADDY FUENTS IS A HOMO!

🤡😂🤡😂🤡😂🤡😂🤡😂

— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) May 17, 2024

After Fuentes fans began harassing Santos on X, Santos posted, “I’m supposed to shut up and accept that the ‘face’ of the ‘far right’ in America is an Evil Gay Mexican Twink? Give me a break! ”

I’m supposed to shut up and accept that the “face” of the “far right” in America is an Evil Gay Mexican Twink?

Give me a break! 🤣🤣🤣

— George Santos (@MrSantosNY) May 17, 2024

Who is Nick Fuentes?

Fuentes is a white supremacist and Holocaust denier who has garnered a large online following despite being booted from multiple mainstream social media platforms.

He has made a number of antisemitic claims in the past, including the accusation that Jews converse with demons and engage in witchcraft.

Speaking at a July rally for America First, an organization he founded, Fuentes called for a holy war against Jews.

“We’re in a holy war, and I will tell you this. Because we’re willing to die in the holy war, we will make them die in the holy war. And they will go down,” he said at the rally.

“We have God on our side,” he continued. “They will go down with their Satanic master. They have no future in America. The enemies of Christ have no future in this world.”

Some families are eyeing faith-based alternatives to the Boy Scouts – soon to be rebranded to Scouting America – as some say the organization has left its founding mission behind.

“Anytime organizations lose their rootedness, and especially if we chase these progressive visions, we end up waking up in a world that’s really hard to recognize and very difficult to navigate, and I think that’s what’s happening to some of these organizations,” Matt Markins, president and CEO of faith-based organization Awana, told ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ on Sunday.

His organization focuses on the discipleship of children, bringing them closer to Christ and preparing them for leadership through a Bible-based youth ministry program. That mission is one Markins says the organization will maintain.

“We have a saying in our organization that Awana is rooted in Scripture, centered on the gospel. We’re never going to move one inch off of that,” he said, speaking to co-hosts Will Cain and Pete Hegseth.

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) reemerged onto the news scene recently after announcing plans to rebrand to “Scouting America” next year. It was far from the first controversial change, however. Its prior decisions to allow openly gay scout leaders and members, as well as girls and transgender youth to join, also sparked backlash among some but support from others.

The organization’s name change is its most recent shift toward inclusivity.

In the meantime, numbers reported by the Associated Press indicate a sharp drop-off in membership, falling to 1.12 million last year from 1.97 million in 2019.

The Boy Scouts of America President and CEO Roger Krone told the outlet prior to the name change that the goal is to reduce as many barriers as possible to ensure everyone can accept the organization and join.

Awana has been around for 74 years and has grown, according to Markins. On a global scale, it operates in 135 countries.

“Our mission is to equip leaders to reach kids with the gospel and to engage them in lifelong discipleship. What does every parent want? Parents want their kids to have a thriving future, so I think over the last few years, we’ve gotten more and more visibility into organizations, what they’re doing, and sometimes we’ve become quite alarmed,” Markins said.

“And so we help come alongside parents, churches, coaches and mentors and help them to shape children and youth with lifetime faith. That’s going to help them be resilient in the future and to be able to thrive no matter their cultural context.”

Another faith-based alternative is Trail Life USA, an organization founded in 2013, which aims to teach young boys how to handle real-world challenges while learning outdoor skills and bolstering their faith.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has broken his silence after shocking video of him beating up his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura surfaced this week.

The 54-year-old rapper took to Instagram on Sunday afternoon to apologize, saying ‘I hit rock bottom, but I make no excuses.’

Looking into the camera, Diddy said: ‘So difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life, sometimes you got to do that. I was f***ed up.

‘I mean I hit rock bottom, but I make no excuses, my behavior in that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video, I’m disgusted.

‘I was disgusted then when I did it, I am disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help, I got into going to therapy, going to rehab.

‘Had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry. But I am committed to be a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness, I’m truly sorry.’

Diddy responds to the backlash he’s been receiving after leaked hotel footage shows him attacking Cassie back in 2016. pic.twitter.com/VudZUKAg7a

— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) May 19, 2024

The shocking surveillance footage of Diddy violently attacking his ex-girlfriend Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016 emerged this week.

The video, obtained by CNN, shows the rapper shirtless with a towel wrapped around his waist, chasing Cassie down the hall at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City.

As she tried to get into an elevator, he grabbed her by the back of the head and slammed her to the ground.

He then kicked her as she lay on the floor motionless, before grabbing the two designer bags she’d tried to escape with.

Diddy stood over her, kicked her again, and then dragged her back to their room by the hoodie.

CNN obtains footage of Diddy beating his former girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016. pic.twitter.com/oiVymFBmMp

— Rap Alert (@rapalert6) May 17, 2024

Cassie claimed in a since-settled lawsuit that Diddy had paid the same hotel $50,000 for the footage after the attack.

Diddy’s followers were not convinced by his apology, flooding the comments under his video with angry messages.

One said: ‘You swore you did nothing wrong. You gaslighted her and all of us, and ONLY now that the video came out, you’re sorry. Bro, go away.’

Another added: ‘If you were truly sorry then and now why were you lying all along? Your chance for redemption was a long time ago Diddler. It’s over now.’

It comes after the LA County District Attorney said they would not be able to prosecute Diddy for the assault as the statute of limitations had passed.

California’s statute of limitations for simple assault is one year, though aggravated assault is three years. Based on the timeline, neither charge could be levied against Diddy.

Two days after the attack, the pair appeared on the red carpet holding hands for the premiere of The Perfect Match.

In a statement to DailyMail.com this week, Cassie’s attorney Douglas Wigdor said: ‘The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs.

‘Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.’

Cassie sued Combs last year alleging rape and a range of other offenses.

They settled out of court in November for an undisclosed amount.

In a statement at the time, Cassie said: ‘I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control,’ Cassie said in a statement.

‘I want to thank my family, fans and lawyers for their unwavering support.’

In his own statement at the time, Diddy’s lawyer said his settling the case was in no way an admission of guilt.

‘Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,’ said his lawyer Ben Brafman.

‘For the past six months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.

‘Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’s reputation and seeking a payday.’

The pair dated between 2007 and 2018, after meeting in 2006 when she was 19 and he was 37.

In her suit, Cassie recalled an incident similar to the one caught on security footage at the LA hotel.

The suit claims: ‘In on around March Mr Combs, during an FO at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Mr Combs became extremely intoxicated and punched Ms Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye.

‘After he fell asleep, Ms. Ventura tried to leave the hotel room, but as she exited, Ms Combs awoke and began screaming at Ms Ventura. He followed her into the hallway while yelling at her.

‘He grabbed her, and then took glass vases in the hallway and threw then at her, causing glass to shatter around them as she ran to the elevator to escape.’

Cassie said in the suit that she managed to eventually escape Diddy and go to her own apartment, but decided to return to the hotel for fear of the rapper.

‘Upon realizing that her running away would cause Mr. Combs to be even angrier with her, and completely stuck in his vicious cycle of abuse, Ms. Ventura returned to the hotel with the intention of apologizing for running away from her abuser,’ the settled complaint said.

‘When she returned, hotel security staff urged her to get back into a cab and go to her apartment, suggesting that they had seen the security footage showing Mr. Combs beating Ms. Ventura and throwing glass at her in the hotel hallway.’

The legal claim said Combs paid the the InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage showing the alleged assault.

Cassie has described a years-long, torturous relationship in which he controlled her movements and subjected her to abuse.

He has always denied wrongdoing.

They met while she was recording her debut album after her smash hit One Thing.

The footage of the March 2016 incident comes just two months after Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles were raided by Homeland Security as part of a sex trafficking investigation.

He is also fighting lawsuits from other accusers who allege sexual misconduct and abuse.

Combs’ sons, Justin and Christian ‘King’ Combs, were handcuffed during the raid at their father’s residence in Los Angeles.

In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.

Another of Combs’ accusers was a woman who said the rap producer raped her two decades ago when she was 17.

Combs and his attorneys have denied all of the lawsuits’ allegations.

The rapper is among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades.

Formerly known as Puff Daddy, he built one of hip-hop’s biggest empires, blazing a trail with several entities attached to his famous name.

He is the founder of Bad Boy Records and a three-time Grammy winner who has worked with a slew of top-tier artists including Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and 112.

President Biden on Sunday gave the commencement address at Morehouse College, an HBCU in Atlanta, Georgia, but with few disruptions from those assembled, despite calls for protests or for the speech to be canceled.

Biden’s address arrived as pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses nationwide have raised pressure domestically over the Israel-Hamas war.

Georgia, a swing state Biden won in 2020, has seen its share of demonstrations and clashes over recent weeks, including at the University of Georgia and Emory University.

The speech is one of several events where the president appeared this week before Black communities — a demographic that has historically backed him as a candidate and whose vote he’s seeking for reelection.

Some students among the graduating class turned their chairs away from Biden as he began his speech, while at least one student held up a Palestinian flag.

Watch:

Morehouse College graduates turn their backs on Crooked Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/jf9d5bVQbF

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 19, 2024

Morehouse Valedictorian DeAngelo Fletcher addressed the crowd while wearing a small Palestinian flag pin, and decorated his mortarboard with another Palestinian emblem. He dedicated part of his speech to calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all Hamas hostages.

“It is my stance as a Morehouse man — nay, as a human being — to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” Fletcher said in his speech, which was given before Biden’s.

Biden’s speech focused on the future of democracy, Israel and Gaza, and encouraging graduates to keep faith and hope, even in dark times.

“Whether you’re young or old, I know what endures. The strength and wisdom of faith endures,” he said.

“Faith asked me to hold on to hope. That’s my commitment to you to show you democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way,” Biden said, later citing the “extremist forces” who seek to disrupt institutions like Morehouse as a threat.

Biden addressed the Israel-Hamas war by saying he has called for “an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and reiterating his support for peaceful protests.

“What’s happening in Gaza and Israel is heartbreaking,” he said.

“What happens in Gaza, what rights do the Palestinian people have? I’m working to make sure we finally get a two-state solution — the only solution where two people live in peace, security, and dignity,” Biden said.

Several students walked out of the graduation ceremony while Biden was presented with an honorary degree following his speech, CNN reported.

Morehouse’s faculty voted 50 to 38 on Thursday to grant Biden an honorary doctorate. Dozens abstained from the vote, per NBC News.

Protests were ongoing outside the graduation site on Sunday, with barricades set up and manned by the Atlanta Police.

Morehouse President David Thomas told CNN Thursday that “disruptive behavior that prevents the ceremony or services” would not be allowed.

Biden is the second sitting president to speak at the college in just over a decade, following then-President Obama’s 2013 address.

A British court could give a final decision on Monday on whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States over the mass leak of secret U.S. documents, the culmination of 13 years of legal battles and detentions.

Two judges at the High Court in London are set to rule on whether the court is satisfied by U.S. assurances that Assange, 52, would not face the death penalty and could rely on the First Amendment right to free speech if he faced a U.S. trial for spying.

Assange’s legal team say he could be on a plane across the Atlantic within 24 hours of the decision, could be released from jail, or his case could yet again be bogged down in months of legal battles.

“I have the sense that anything could happen at this stage,” his wife, Stella, said last week. “Julian could be extradited, or he could be freed.”

She said her husband hoped to be in court for the crucial hearing.

WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — the largest security breaches of their kind in U.S. military history — along with swaths of diplomatic cables.

In April 2010 it published a classified video showing a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.

The U.S. authorities want to put the Australian-born Assange on trial over 18 charges, nearly all under the Espionage Act, saying his actions with WikiLeaks were reckless, damaged national security, and endangered the lives of agents.

His many global supporters call the prosecution a travesty, an assault on journalism and free speech, and revenge for causing embarrassment. Calls for the case to be dropped have ranged from human rights groups and some media bodies, to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other political leaders.

Detained Since 2010

Assange was first arrested in Britain in 2010 on a Swedish warrant over sex crime allegations that were later dropped. Since then he has been variously under house arrest, holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London for seven years, and held since 2019 in Belmarsh top security jail, latterly while he waited a ruling on his extradition.

“Every day since the 7th of December 2010 he has been in one form of detention or another,” said Stella Assange, who was originally part of his legal team and married him in Belmarsh in 2022.

If the High Court rules the extradition can go ahead, Assange’s legal avenues in Britain are exhausted, and his lawyers will immediately turn to the European Court of Human Rights to seek an emergency injunction blocking deportation pending a full hearing by that court into his case at a later date.

On the other hand, if the judges reject the U.S. submissions, then he will have permission to appeal his extradition case on three grounds, and that might not be heard until next year.

It is also possible the judges could decide that Monday’s hearing should consider not just whether he can appeal but also the substance of that appeal. If they find in his favour in those circumstances, he could be released.

Stella Assange said that whatever the outcome she would continue to fight for his liberty. If he is freed she plans to follow him to Australia or wherever he was safe. If he is extradited, she said all the psychiatric evidence presented at court had concluded he was at very serious risk of suicide.

“We live from day to day, from week to week, from decision to decision. This is a way that we’ve been living for years and years,” she told Reuters.

“This is just not a way to live — it’s so cruel. And I can’t prepare for his extradition — how could I? But if he’s extradited, then I’ll do whatever I can, and our family is going to fight for him until he’s free.”

Jimmy Carter is ‘at home, enjoying peanut butter ice cream,’ said the CEO of the 99-year-old’s non-profit, days after his grandson warned that the former president’s life was ‘coming to the end.’

Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander said on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast Wednesday that ‘there really hasn’t been a significant change’ in the ex-president’s health.

The Georgia peanut farmer and oldest living president has been in hospice care for more than a year after deciding to forego any further medical treatment.

‘I mean, he will always be one bad cold away from the end,’ Alexander told the podcast. ‘He is in hospice care, and there are palliative measures if he’s in pain, but nothing else.’

‘He is just the same remarkable man. He has always been outliving and surprising us all,’ Alexander added.

While Jason Carter warned that his grandfather’s death could be imminent he also told a crowd at a mental health froum on Tuesday that ‘he is doing OK.’

‘He has been in hospice, as you know, for almost a year and a half now, and he really is, I think, coming to the end that, as I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him, and there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end and I think he has been there in that space,’ Jason Carter said.

The ex-president entered hospice care in February 2023 after a series of hospital visits.

He has already survived metastatic brain and liver cancer.

In November, he made rare public appearance for his wife Rosalynn’s memorial service, in a wheelchair and covered in a blanket depicting her face.

They were married for 77 years, and lived in the same modest home in Plains, Georgia, for decades.

The longest-married couple in U.S. presidential history, they met when Jimmy was just three years old and Rosalynn was a newborn, and celebrated their 77nd wedding anniversary on July 7, 2023.

Family members say that he was determined to hang on even after entering hospice care, in part to ensure that Rosalynn was never left alone.

‘He was really honored and glad that he made it to the end with my grandmother, and that was a real treasure for him,’ Jason Carter told the New York Times in February.

‘I think that for whatever reason, the way he approaches this is from a place of enormous faith. And so he just believes that for whatever reason, God’s not done with him yet,’ he added.

Rosalynn’s funeral was the only time Carter has appeared publicly since entering hospice, and his frail appearance at the service alarmed friends in the church and well-wishers watching on television.

Carter spends his days in the home in Plains that he has owned for more than six decades, where caregivers attend to his needs and friends and family visit.

The two-bedroom, one-story ranch house was built by Carter himself, and is worth about $240,000.

Carter was elected to the Georgia state Senate on November 5, 1962, following an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate.

He became Georgia’s governor on November 3, 1970.

Carter won the U.S. presidential election on November 2, 1976, thanks in part to Rosalynn’s determined campaign strategy, visiting 40 states and earning her the title of ‘secret weapon.’

He served a single term that was blighted by an oil crisis that forced Americans to wait in line for gas and was defeated by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Since then he has committed himself to philanthropy and living a humble life with Rosalynn, his four children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

In August 2015, Carter had a small cancerous mass removed from his liver.

The following year, Carter announced that he needed no further treatment, as an experimental drug had eliminated any sign of cancer.

That same year, he was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma that was detected in his liver and spread to his brain.

About six months after the diagnosis, Carter announced he no longer needed cancer treatment due in part to a groundbreaking medication that trains the immune system to fight cancer tumors.

He was hospitalized two years later for dehydration while building homes with Habitat for Humanity in Canada.

Despite his series of health scares, the president remained active in public life up until recent times.

President Joe Biden went to see Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter at their home in Plains, Georgia in April 2021, several months after he was sworn in, after the couple was unable to make it to the Democrat’s inauguration.

College-educated and working women across X are coming to the defense of Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker after his recent graduation speech at Benedictine College garnered backlash from many across the web and popular media for containing allegedly “sexist” remarks.

The string of posts seemingly began with “Out of Context” podcast host Noelle Fitchett making her rallying cry to women of a similar mindset, writing on the platform Thursday, “Can we start a trend with women with degrees and careers but agree with Harrison Butker’s speech?”

“I’ll go first,” she continued, “My name is Noelle, I have three degrees, and I agree that the world needs more masculinity and that wives/mothers are vital for society.” Others followed suit.

“I graduated last week with my second Bachelors degree as class Valedictorian. I was the only one with kids (6 and 4). Startling [sic] a second career after being a stay at home mom for 5 years and loved every single second. start new job in July,” an account by the name Mamavestor chimed in.

Tara Ross, retired attorney and author of “Why We Need the Electoral College,” wrote, “I am a Rice University grad and a UT Law School grad. I know a ton about the Electoral College, constitutional history, and American history in general. I have authored multiple books. The greatest thing I’ve done in my life, however, are my family/kids. I agree with Harrison Butker. More wives and mothers, please,”

“Hi my name is Rupali,” said another, “I’m a Johns Hopkins educated, double board certified and licensed, practicing physician, but building my family, our legacy is my greater honor. I agree with Harrison Butker! More wives and mothers please!!”

Can we start a trend with women with degrees and careers but agree with Harrison Butker’s speech?

I’ll go first: my name is Noelle, I have three degrees, and I agree that the world needs more masculinity and that wives/mothers are vital for society. pic.twitter.com/qgoGmOJM1y

— Noelle Fitchett (@NoelleFitchett) May 16, 2024

I graduated last week with my second Bachelors degree as class Valedictorian. I was the only one with kids (6 and 4). Startling a second career after being a stay at home mom for 5 years and loved every single second ❤️ start new job in July

— Mamavestor (@mamavestor) May 16, 2024

Sure. I’ll join. My name is Tara. I am a Rice University grad and a UT Law School grad. I know a ton about the Electoral College, constitutional history, and American history in general…. I have authored multiple books.

The greatest thing I’ve done in my life, however, are my… https://t.co/eRzvRtjNs5

— Tara Ross (@TaraRoss) May 19, 2024

Hi my name is Rupali. I’m a Johns Hopkins educated, double board certified and licensed, practicing physician, but building my family, our legacy is my greater honor.

I agree with Harrison Butker! More wives and mothers please!! https://t.co/kxnzxCY9wL pic.twitter.com/YrybnaYvZC

— Rupali Chadha, M.D.🩺 (@RupaliChadhaMD) May 18, 2024

Butker’s words during the May 11 commencement speech grew contentious as he shifted his focus to the female members of the audience and mentioned the significance of becoming a wife and mother.

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” he said. “How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

He shifted the focus to his wife, Isabelle, who he stated would be the first to say that her life “truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.” He also praised her for making his success possible. The remarks were met with applause.

Butker earned the support of Gracie Hunt, the daughter of Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt, and Hall of Fame college football coach Lou Holtz, among others.

Kelly Stafford, wife of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, had a different opinion.

“It is a choice. It is a woman’s choice whether she is just a mom. It is a woman’s choice whether she decides to be a career woman,” she said. “It is a woman’s choice if she decides to do both and balance and do all that. And I think for someone to get up at a commencement speech and tell women who have been working their butts off for four years, possibly paying their way and are now in debt and they’re gonna need a career, that their biggest success story will be being a mom and a wife and don’t get me wrong, that might be. But it’s their choice whether they do that or not.

“To tell them they have been ‘diabolically lied to,’ you know, in a world where it’s tough. I feel like we constantly tear each other down. I feel like to build each other up, to build men and women up, not tear either down because, you know what, there’s some bright a– women that can change this world. And to tell them that they don’t really belong in the workplace …”

On X, the swath of support for Butker also received backlash.

Kathia Woods, a journalist, replied to Fitchett’s post, writing, “Many of us are wives, mom and wait for it hold degrees. I stayed home for two years with my daughter and it was great but we could afford it and wait for it was my choice. No man or society forced me into it. That’s key part Harrison missed it should be our choice. Not his.”

“But that isn’t what he said that was the issue. He told the women, who like you, were sitting in that chair because of their hard work, time, money, and tears, that they’re going to end up as stay at home moms end of story. That doesn’t have to be the case,” another said, also replying to Fitchett.

Many of us are wives, mom and wait for it hold degrees. I stayed home for two years with my daughter and it was great but we could afford it and wait for it was my choice. No man or society forced me into it. That’s key part Harrison missed it should be our choice. Not his

— Kathia Woods (@kathia_woods) May 16, 2024

But that isn’t what he said that was the issue. He told the women, who like you, were sitting in that chair because of their hard work, time, money, and tears, that they’re going to end up as stay at home moms end of story. That doesn’t have to be the case.

— 🏴‍☠️ (@patricidial) May 16, 2024

Some left-wing voices defended Butker’s right to free speech shortly after.

HBO’s Bill Maher, for one, said, “I don’t see what the big crime is” when touching on the subject.

Whoopi Goldberg also set herself apart from the rest of “The View” as the others took shots at Butker.

“Listen, I like when people say what they need to say. He’s at a Catholic college. He’s a staunch Catholic. These are his beliefs and he’s welcome to ’em,” she said.

“I don’t have to believe ’em. I don’t have to accept them… The same way we want respect when [former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist] Colin Kaepernick takes a knee, we want to give respect to people whose ideas are different from ours.”

A Chicago mom who called 911 during a terrifying break-in was left on her own for hours — with dispatchers telling her to call her local representative to demand more police funding.

Michelle called the emergency hotline six times after coming face-to-face with two masked bandits, only for the strained supervisor to tell her the city’s severe budget cuts had left them with a bare-bones staff.

“A gentleman got on and said sorry to say we have no units to send you … then there was an awkward pause,” Michelle told NBC Chicago Wednesday, declining to share her name or face while her would-be robbers are still on the loose.

“He also recommended I call my alderman and I said why, and he said encourage him to hire more police. The dispatcher also asked me if I would consider defending myself … if I had a weapon or considered getting one.”

According to Michelle, the two strangers walked through her open back door around 12:30 p.m. after she let her dog out.

They were even caught on her security camera “moseying” up to her property after climbing over a 6-foot-tall fence, but quickly sprinting away after finding the homeowner inside the house.

“I screamed: ‘I am calling the police’ and they bolted,” Michelle recalled.

Michelle and a neighbor tried chasing after the men before she followed through on her promise.

A dispatcher promised the frightened mother that help was on the way and directed her to wait outside.

But officers didn’t arrive, Michelle said.

After an hour and a half and six phone calls to 911, she finally demanded answers from a dispatch supervisor, who indicated the slow response was due to the city’s lackluster police department funding.

It would be another two and a half hours before cops finally arrived.

“The officers who did show up cared and were apologetic it took so long to get them there,” Michelle said.

“I don’t think it is the police department’s fault they are overstaffed and overwhelmed.”

Chicago Police told NBC Chicago that the delay in getting officers to Michelle’s home may have been related to the priority list for routine dispatch calls for 911 — because there was no immediate threat to life, Michelle was left waiting as officers addressed more pressing concerns in the area.

Despite her frustration, Michelle heeded the dispatch supervisor’s advice and called her alderman’s office and is waiting to meet with him in person.

“It is awful that our neighbor experienced this, everyone deserves to feel safe in their home,” 1st Ward Alderman Daniel La Spata said in a statement.

“My staff alerted me to the issue as soon as they heard, and I am in contact with 12th District Police leadership. I will continue to support any resources our districts request, and I will continue to work with the City on a proposed satellite location within West Town for the 12th District police.”

It has long been thought that testosterone shortens men’s lives. Studies in neutered animals and Korean eunuchs seem to confirm this. However, a new study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, draws these findings into question.

In this study, led by a team at the University of Western Australia, the researchers combined the results of 11 high-quality studies (known as a meta-analysis) investigating the effect of testosterone levels on lifespan. The studies followed men for at least five years and found that participants with the lowest testosterone levels were more likely to die.

Death in this study was from any cause, but digging deeper into the analysis reveals that this is mostly due to heart disease – still the leading cause of death in men globally.

What is interesting is that the same process underlying heart disease might also contribute to erectile dysfunction — the inability to get and keep an erection firm enough for sex.

Erectile dysfunction often occurs much earlier than symptoms of heart disease and can act as an early warning sign of existing or future heart problems. Testosterone is known to have a large effect on erectile function, again linking levels of this hormone to heart disease.

Testosterone levels typically decline as men age, dropping by about 1% per year from the age of 30. This is sometimes referred to as the male menopause or andropause.

This decrease over time is at least partly due to a slow waning of the ability of the testicles to produce testosterone and a reduction in the signals that tell them to. However, other factors can accelerate this decline, including chronic disease.

Chicken or egg?

So is low testosterone causing disease or is it caused by it?

A limitation of the new study is that it is not able to figure out if low testosterone directly causes an increased risk of death. Testosterone is lowered by illness, so it could be a marker for an underlying disease that results in an increased chance of dying. This is especially true for diseases that have long-term inflammation, of which obesity is one.

Helping unravel this relationship is the situation found in prostate cancer patients. When the cancer spreads, the patient is given drugs that drastically lower testosterone levels. Despite improving prostate cancer, this treatment increases the risk of heart attack and stroke in the patients.

So while low testosterone may be a marker of disease, to some extent it is clearly also a contributing factor in the development of future disease and possibly death.

Figuring out what a “low” level of testosterone is, is complicated. Measuring testosterone on its own might not give the full picture of what’s the right level for someone. What is low for one man may not be low for another.

Researchers use average levels of testosterone from lots of people from different populations to establish normal ranges to help identify people outside of this range with a related disease. This helps doctors to identify and treat patients who might need help.

However, making these generaliations across populations is tricky and often requires larger effects to show these trends. The new meta-analysis suggests that the increased risk of death in men is apparent mostly when testosterone levels are very low.

What is important to note from this is that regardless of the levels defining what is considered normal for any individual, lowered levels for that person seem to increase the risk of dying.

Keeping healthy T levels

Given the risks associated with low testosterone, you might wonder if there is any way to prevent them.

First, men should certainly try to avoid things that reduce it by adopting a healthy lifestyle and avoiding putting on weight. But when levels are low, treatment to replace the missing testosterone could be an option.

There is growing evidence that testosterone replacement therapy may help reduce some of those risks, including death from any cause and from heart attack, in some men. Yet controversy still exists as long-standing – and largely outdated – concerns regarding testosterone therapy causing heart attacks endure.

While most evidence now suggests there is at least no risk of heart disease associated with testosterone replacement therapy, more research is needed to determine if it can improve heart health in men.

While there may be hope on the horizon in the form of testosterone for reducing the risk of men dying from heart attack, it looks as though it will be a long road until treatment becomes a common option. In the meantime, it would be wise to maintain your testosterone levels through a healthy lifestyle.

Alice Stewart, a veteran political adviser and CNN political commentator who worked on several GOP presidential campaigns, has died. She was 58.

Law enforcement officials told CNN that Stewart’s body was found outdoors in the Belle View neighborhood in northern Virginia early Saturday morning. No foul play is suspected, and officers believe a medical emergency occurred.

“Alice was a very dear friend and colleague to all of us at CNN,” Mark Thompson, the network’s CEO, said in an email to staff Saturday. “A political veteran and an Emmy Award-winning journalist who brought an incomparable spark to CNN’s coverage, known across our bureaus not only for her political savvy, but for her unwavering kindness. Our hearts are heavy as we mourn such an extraordinary loss.”

Stewart was born on March 11, 1966, in Atlanta.

Stewart started her career as a local reporter and producer in Georgia before moving to Little Rock, Arkansas, to be a news anchor, she told Harvard International Review. She went on to serve as the communications director in then-Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s office before assuming a similar role for his presidential run in 2008.

She also served as the communications director for the 2012 Republican presidential bids of former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and then former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, also a former CNN commentator. Most recently, Stewart was the communications director for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 GOP campaign.

⁦”Alice was wonderful and talented and a dear friend,” Cruz said in a post on X. “She lived every day to the fullest, and she will be deeply missed.”

CNN hired Stewart as a political commentator ahead of the 2016 election, and she appeared on air frequently to provide insight on the political news of the day, including as recently as Friday on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

“We always invited her to come on my show because we knew we would be a little bit smarter at the end of that conversation,” Blitzer told Jessica Dean on “CNN Newsroom.” “She helped our viewers better appreciate what was going on and that’s why we will miss her so much.”

Speaking about her role as a commentator for the network, Stewart told Harvard Political Review in 2020 that she brings “a perspective that I think CNN appreciates.”

“My position at CNN is to be a conservative voice yet an independent thinker,” Stewart said. “I’m not a Kool-Aid drinker; I’m not a never-Trumper, and I didn’t check my common sense and decency at the door when I voted for (Trump).”

Stewart was also a co-host of the podcast “Hot Mics From Left to Right,” alongside fellow CNN commentator Maria Cardona.

“I just can’t believe that she’s gone,” Cardona said on “CNN Newsroom,” adding that the two were going to record an episode of their podcast Saturday. “I want everyone to know what a special person she was, especially in this industry. As you know, today’s politics can be indecent and so dirty, and Alice was just such a loving, shining light.”

Stewart also served on the senior advisory committee at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, where she previously was a fellow.

In her free time, Stewart was an avid runner. She frequently posted photos from road races on social media, including from the TCS New York City Marathon, which she ran in November, and the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race, which she ran last month.

Randy Kozuch, the executive director of the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm, offered the gun rights advocacy group’s presidential endorsement to presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump on Saturday.

The move did not come as a surprise, as the NRA previously endorsed Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Kozuch made the announcement as he introduced the former president to the crowd at the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Dallas.

Trump thanked Kozuch before addressing the audience. He called gun owners a “rebellious bunch,” claiming that they tend not to vote and encouraging them to change that in 2024.

“Let’s be rebellious and vote this time, OK?” Trump said.

The former president’s remarks were largely reminiscent of a traditional campaign rally, but he briefly discussed the Second Amendment, which he told attendees was “under siege.”

“With me, they’d never get anywhere, and we need that Second Amendment,” Trump said.

“… We need it for safety because the bad guys are not giving up their guns, you know that.”

Trump also warned that if President Joe Biden wins another term in the White House, his “regime” would be “coming for your guns, 100% certain,” citing the president’s “40-year record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”

The former president also weighed in on independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who referred to the NRA as a “terror group” in the aftermath of the deadly 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Parkland students are right; the NRA is a terror group

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) February 17, 2018

“He calls you a terrorist group,” Trump said. “Can’t vote for him. Somebody said, well, you know, they like his policy on vaccine. The other day, he said ‘No, no,’ he’ll go for the vaccine. He’s got no policy on anything. He’s radical left. He always has been. His family is angry at him because he’s doing this”

Earlier this month, Kennedy challenged Trump to a debate at next weekend’s Libertarian National Convention in Washington. The former president is scheduled to deliver remarks there, while the independent candidate has been invited to do the same.

Trump and Biden are scheduled to meet on the debate stage in just under six weeks. CNN will host the in-studio event on June 27 in Atlanta.

Watch Trump’s full speech:

The autopsy of a Boeing whistleblower has officially determined his death as suicide – as it is revealed he left a furious note slamming the airline.

John Barnett, 62, was found dead in his truck outside a Holiday Inn in Charleston, South Carolina, suffering from what the Coroner’s Office said appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

His death sparked huge uproar when his body was found on March 9 – the same day he was due to testify against Boeing after alleging under-pressure workers were deliberately fitting sub-standard parts to aircraft on the assembly line.

Charleston Police Department announced the conclusion to its investigation into his death on Thursday.

‘All findings were consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound,’ the report from Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal read. The coroner concluded the manner of Barnett’s death ‘is best deemed, ‘suicide.”

The department confirmed Barnett’s death was a suicide based on a series of factors.

Investigators found him alone and locked inside his car with the key fob in his pants pocket. There was no sign of forced entry or a physical struggle.

His phone and hotel key card showed no suspicious activity, and hotel security footage confirmed he left the building unaccompanied before returning shortly after to park.

The vehicle remained undisturbed until the discovery of his body the next morning.

A ballistic analysis of the gun found in Barnett’s hand at the scene was registered under his name and legally purchased in 2000.

The notebook containing his suicide note found in the front passenger seat of the truck had his and only his fingerprints on them.

Records obtained by officials confirmed Barnett has had a history of mental health struggles, which only worsened throughout his lawsuit with Boeing.

For the first time, the contents of Barnett’s suicide letter were also revealed, which included several profane messages directed at Boeing.

‘I CAN’T DO THIS ANY LONGER!!! ENOUGH!! F*** BOEING!!!’ one message reads.

‘Bury me face down so Boeing and their lying-a*** leaders can kiss my a**’ reads another.

Barnett’s mother told an investigator with CPD that Barnett would often make these remarks.

The whistleblower ends his letter by addressing his loved ones: ‘TO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS, I FOUND MY PURPOSE! I’M AT PEACE! I LOVE YOU MORE’ with a doodled heart at the end.

Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years before retiring in 2017, with 17 of those years spent as a quality manager.

He was involved in lawsuit with Boeing up until the day he died, and had been in Charleston undergoing legal interviews as part of the process.

In March, Barnett’s lawyers Robin Turkewitz and Brian Knowles, referenced a full list of Barnett’s complaints against his employer as outlined in a lawsuit for wrongful retaliation filed in 2021.

Among those is that after raising a certain issue in June 2014, the company retaliated by having a manager spy on him.

Boeing’s production practices have been questioned both on the 787, a model called the Dreamliner, and the company’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max.

The company has come under increased scrutiny since a panel blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

Barnett said in his complaint that he raised the issue of Boeing’s ‘deep-rooted and persistent culture of concealment’ multiple times. He goes on to accuse the company of not documenting and fixing other problems.

In retaliation for his complaints, Barnett said that he was given low scores on performance reports, isolated and forbidden from transferring out of South Carolina.

He says he was ‘treated with scorn and contempt by upper management.’ Thanks to his treatment, Barnett said that he had to take medical leave in order to deal with stress.

Low scores on performance reviews can affect an employees changes of earning a raise or gaining promotion. Prior to making complaints, Barnett alleges that he was a ‘top performer’ at the Boeing plant in North Charleston.

Another complaint outlined in the legal filing saw Barnett raising the issue of mechanics doing self-inspections on their own work, something that is prohibited by the Federal Aviation Administration.

In addition to now following FAA protocols, Barnett said that Boeing didn’t even follow internal rules.

After emailing another quality control manager in 2012 about a complaint, he claims he was told the company didn’t believe him and therefore no investigation took place.

Company officials allegedly asked him to stop complaining about staff taking one piece from a plane and using it on another without authorization.

For that complaint, Barnett said that he was publicly chastised in front of his staff and moved to a new shift.

When he filed another complaint in June 2014 regarding procedures not being followed, Barnett alleges that the company had a manager ‘spy’ on him as he told ‘to work in the grey areas.’

Later that same year, Barnett was put on a 60 day ‘corrective action plan’ and was told by human resources that there was an investigation underway into his behavior.

In July 2015, Barnett said that he saw his team reassigned without his knowledge and thus leaving other areas that he was responsible for understaffed.

A year later, Barnett said he was challenged with performing a task involving recovering lost parts during an impossible timeframe. When he raised this, he was told to ‘let it go.’

A month after that, Barnett said that he was removed from an investigation into defective passenger oxygen masks finding that 75 out of 300 didn’t work. After his removal, he alleges that the investigation never addressed the problem.

Barnett then saw mechanical staff be asked to use scrap parts in planes without proper documentation. When he complained about this, Barnett said he was blocked from applying for a promotion.

In October 2016, Barnett took his complaints to Boeing’s national office. In the legal complaint he says that after being told that it would be handled, the investigation reverted back to staff in the Charleston office.

According to this filing, the same year that he retired, 2017, Barnett filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in which he raised his issues as well as the personal punishments he believed that he received.

Early in the year, he says he learned that he was on a list of ‘quality managers to get rid of.’

Boeing issued a statement upon the release of the complaint.

‘We are saddened by Mr. Barnett’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family and friends. Boeing reviewed and addressed quality issues that Mr. Barnett raised before he retired in 2017, as well as other quality issues referred to in the complaint about its 2020 disposition of Mr. Barnett’s claims,’ the company said.

Barnett is just one of many whistleblowers who have come forward in recent months, raising a string of allegations about Boeing’s quality control.

Santiago Paredes, who worked for Spirit AeroSystems – where the troubled 737 Max is built – at its factory in Kansas, is the latest to speak out, saying he was asked to hide defects on 737 fuselages.

The House is poised to vote on two contempt resolutions against Attorney General Merrick Garland as early as next week, but Republicans are already preparing alternatives if the Justice Department declines to bring criminal charges against its leader.

Both the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees passed the measures on Thursday that hold Garland in contempt of Congress for not turning over the audio recording from President Joe Biden‘s interview with special counsel Robert Hur despite handing over the transcript from the conversation. The measures now head to the House floor for a full vote as early as Tuesday, when the chamber is back in session.

When the bill comes to the floor is unknown, but it is up to House GOP leadership to schedule the vote.

The contempt resolution against Garland is part of a larger impeachment inquiry into Biden, whom Republicans claim improperly benefitted from his family members’ foreign business dealings. So far, they have provided little to no evidence of these allegations.

A vote on the contempt resolution is Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) next hurdle to overcome as he tries to navigate a one-seat majority and a small group of hard-line conservatives who have pushed back against his leadership since he took the gavel. Johnson recently survived a motion to vacate effort, after House Democrats joined most Republicans to table the motion to oust him.

Even with a one-seat majority, Johnson has a larger numbers problem: Many of his GOP members represent Biden districts or are centrist Republicans fighting in competitive primaries and general elections this November. A lawmaker told Axios in February that there are already “easily 40-50” Republicans who are likely to vote against the impeachment.

If the resolutions somehow pass the full House, a criminal referral will then be made to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., which must then weigh whether to move forward with prosecution. However, it is unlikely to result in any criminal proceedings for Garland, who heads the DOJ.

Republicans prepare a backup plan

Ahead of Thursday’s contempt markups, the Justice Department announced Thursday morning that the president was asserting executive privilege over the recordings — placing another roadblock in the way of House Republicans as they continue to argue with the DOJ over whether Congress should have access to the audio recording.

Because of Biden’s assertion of executive privilege, the chances of Garland facing criminal proceedings are slim to none. However, House Republicans have several alternative paths to take should the DOJ decline to follow through on the contempt resolutions.

One path is to allow the courts to decide whether executive privilege is a viable claim on behalf of the president. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Politico that he thinks battling it out in the courts is “very likely.”

Some Republicans have criticized the president’s assertion of executive privilege as a political move, while some legal experts have argued that because Biden waived privilege with the transcript, it applies to the audio recording, as well. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) echoed this thought to Politico, saying that GOP legal counsel is skeptical about the president’s claim.

“Hopefully we’ll find out if that’ll hold up in court very soon,” Comer said.

The parameters of executive privilege agreed by the DOJ and other institutions allow the president and his advisers to “discuss issues candily, express opinions, and explore options without fear that those deliberations will later be made public,” according to comments from public interest law professor John Banzhaf from George Washington University Law School shared with the Washington Examiner.

“But here those discussions and opinions have already [been] made very public,” Banzhaf noted. “The cat is out of the bag.”

Another route that GOP members may take is to take up a long-dormant House contempt power under a resolution from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL). In May, she announced an “inherent contempt” resolution against Garland, which differs from the committees’ proceedings.

Luna’s resolution relies on the power to allow the House to detain and imprison someone until they comply with the congressional demand. Under the process, which hasn’t been used since 1935, the person being held in contempt could be arrested by the sergeant-at-arms and brought to the House floor for trial, and can be imprisoned or detained in the Capitol.

Luna’s office confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Luna’s resolution is still active. The Florida congresswoman spoke about her resolution during the Oversight hearing on Thursday night, which was moved from the early morning to later that night to accommodate Luna and other members’ trip to New York to be at Trump’s hush money trial.

“I fully intend to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in inherent contempt of Congress if the DOJ does not do their job,” Luna said in a post to X late Thursday.

A transgender teen athlete was booed as he crossed the finish line in a 400m race at the Oregon state championships.

Aayden Gallagher appeared to win his heat with a time of 55.25 seconds on Friday.

His performance earned one of five spots from across two heats in the final due to take place Saturday.

The tenth grader came second overall across both heats behind Josie Donelson, who won her heat and narrowly pipped her to the top spot with a time of 55.04, Athletic Live reported.

Sophie Castaneda was listed as coming in third overall and second behind Gallagher with a time of 55.65s, per the outlet.

In a clip shared online, jeering could be heard in the background as Gallagher crosses the finish line.

Even prior to the win, his participation in the race has been criticized by Republican lawmakers, who called for a change to the regulations after Gallagher clinched a win during a previous 400m race.

Oregon State Activities Association rules allow athletes to participate in a category that aligns with their gender identity without the need to provide evidence of a medical transition.

The controversy was reignited after footage of Gallagher’s most recent race was shared by Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer who campaigns against allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s sport.

Gaines claimed that Gallagher ‘dominated’ her most recent heat on Friday, asking ‘When will we see coaches and parents standing up to this mockery?’

The campaigner previously drew attention to Gallagher when he shared another video of the McDaniel High School sophomore cruising to victory in a race at the Sherwood Need for Speed Classic last month.

Gaines became women’s sports activist after she tied for fifth place with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in a 2022 swim meet. However, Thomas was handed the trophy over Gaines.

The Kentucky swimmer has since joined forces with a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on Thursday, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing Thomas to compete at the competition.

Aayden Gallagher (male) dominates his heat of the women’s 400m this morning at the Oregon Track & Field State Championships.

He will run in the state championship final tomorrow.

When will we see coaches and parents standing up to this mockery? pic.twitter.com/jQ9QnWOUgv

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 17, 2024

OSAA’s executive director, Peter Weber, has defended the organization’s trans inclusive policy.

‘Oregon law has long prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,’ he wrote in a letter to his critics.

‘In 2019, the Oregon Department of Education amended its rules that ‘sexual orientation’ was defined to include ‘gender identity.’ The Oregon legislature likewise amended the definition of ‘sexual orientation’ to include ‘gender identity.”

UPDATE:

Gallagher just Won the Girls Varsity 200m race at the 2024 OSAA Track & Field State Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

🚨JUST NOW🚨

A transgender runner has just WON the Girls Varsity 200m race at the 2024 OSAA Track & Field State Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Aayden Gallagher reportedly received a personal police escort to the field.

(Joint release with @ThePublicaNow) pic.twitter.com/29wIFcW0GP

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) May 18, 2024

This article was updated.