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.

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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. 

A Massachusetts agency reportedly housed homeless and migrant families with young children in the same hotels as registered sex offenders, according to the Boston Globe.

The state placed hundreds of homeless migrant families in at least six locations with sex offenders convicted of crimes against children, including pornography, rape and assault, the Boston Globe reported.

Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities rejected the outlet’s requests for information on sex offenders, but said after the outlet identified offenders that the agency checks shelters against the registry every six months.

“The safety and wellbeing of the 7,500 families in Emergency Assistance shelter is a priority for our administration,” a spokesman for the agency, Keven Connor, told the Boston Globe.

“We will continue to take all possible steps to ensure the safety of EA residents and carefully review any situation that comes before us to act quickly to protect families.”

Families in locations with sex offenders, like at the Baymont Hotel, where a man convicted of “repeatedly and indecently assaulting” a girl under 14 is reportedly living or at the Colonial Traveler Inn, where an offender convicted of rape and child abuse is reportedly living, did not seem to be notified, the outlet reported.

One offender, who lives at a former Salem State University dormitory being used to house migrants and was convicted of rape and abuse of a child in 2012, was removed, the agency told the Boston Globe after the outlet identified him.

Massachusetts has spent nearly $1 billion to house migrant families coming into the state and is supporting around 23,000 people, according to the Boston Globe.

In March, an immigrant from Haiti allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl in a hotel being used as a shelter.

Argentine President Javier Milei is visited Spain on Friday without meeting with King Felipe or the head of State.

In his first visit to Spain since being inaugurated as President in December, Milei talked about his book “El camino del libertario (The libertarian’s road)” on Friday at the auditorium of Spanish newspaper La Razón, and on Saturday he met businesspeople.

On Sunday, he will be the star guest of a rally organised by Spanish right-wing party Vox, led by Santiago Abascal, which will also be attended by French politician Marine Le Pen and Chilean José Antonio Kast.

The event, which will feature video presentations by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban, was dubbed Europa Viva 24, and described by Vox as a “convention of European patriots” in the face of the European election on June 9.

Milei and Abascal boast about their good relations, and as soon as the Spanish politician announced on X the organisation of this rally, the Argentine President answered: “I’ll be there with all of you once again, dear FRIEND! LONG LIVE LIBERTY, DAMN IT!”

After the rally on Sunday, Milei will return to Argentina.

His schedule does not include a meeting with the head of State, King Felipe VI, who attended his inauguration, or the Prime Minister, socialist Pedro Sánchez, who expressed his support for Milei’s rival in the election campaign, Sergio Massa.

More things have happened since, because Transport minister Óscar Puente made the “mistake”, in his own words after apologising, of claiming that Milei had taken “substances” prior to a speech.

“There are very bad people who, by being themselves, have reached the top”, he added, in reference to the Argentine chief executive.

The Argentine Government issued a tough press release condemning these words, but, following Puente’s apology, the matter was “closed” and “finished”, as stated by Argentine presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni on May 6, not without holding it to be “quite aggressive” for “another country’s minister to say that our President is taking some substance”.

Milei’s arrival comes shortly after Planeta took his book out of circulation in Spain, because its flap contained “incorrect data about his academic qualifications”, the publishing house explained in a press release published on X on May 15, where it “apologised to the President”.

“There are conflictive attitudes by both parties accelerating some deterioration”, stated on Spanish-Argentine relations Carlos Malamud, Latin American specialist of the Real Instituto Elcano, a Spanish think tank.

Among them, he quoted Sánchez’s support for Massa in the campaign, or this visit by Milei to Spain without meeting top authorities.

“There is much at stake in Spanish-Argentine relationships to keep both parties from working a bit more at maintaing their traditional levels, which is typically great intensity on every front”, added Malamud in an analysis piece published in April.

Seize the Grey went wire to wire to win the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, giving 88-year-old Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas a seventh victory in the race and ending Mystik Dan’s Triple Crown bid.

The gray colt took advantage of the muddy track just like Lukas hoped he would, pulling off the upset in a second consecutive impressive start two weeks after romping in a race on the Derby undercard at Churchill Downs.

Seize the Grey went off at 9-1, one of the longest shots on the board.

Mystik Dan finished second in the field of eight horses running in the $2 million, 1 3/16-mile race.

After falling short of going back to back following his win by a nose in the Kentucky Derby, it would be a surprise if he runs in the Belmont Stakes on June 8 at Saratoga Race Course.

Seize the Grey was a surprise Preakness winner facing tougher competition than in the Pat Day Mile on May 4.

Seize The Grey WINS the 149th Preakness Stakes! 🌻 pic.twitter.com/Uqyb5nXPuS

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) May 18, 2024

Though given the Lukas connection, it should never be a surprise when one of his horses is covered in a blanket of Black-Eyed Susan flowers.

No one in the race’s 149-year history has saddled more horses in the Preakness than Lukas with 48 since debuting in 1980.

He had two this time, with Just Steel finishing fifth.

Lukas has now won the Preakness seven times, one short of the record held by two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer and close friend Bob Baffert, whose Imagination finished seventh.

Baffert was also supposed to have two horses in the field and arguably the best, but morning line favorite Muth was scratched earlier in the week because of a fever.

Muth’s absence made Mystik Dan the 2-1 favorite, but he and jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. could not replicate their perfect Derby trip to win that race’s first three-way photo finish since 1947.

Instead, Jaime Torres rode Seize the Grey to a win in his first Preakness.

This was the last Preakness held at Pimlico Race Course as it stands before demolition begins on the historic but deteriorating track, which will still hold the 150th running of it next year mid-construction.

That process is already well underway at Belmont Park, which is why the final leg of the Triple Crown is happening at Saratoga for the first time and is being shortened to 1 1/4 miles because of the shape of the course.

Kentucky Derby second-place finisher Sierra Leone, a half step from winning, is expected to headline that field.

Rudy Giuliani’s 80th birthday bash in Palm Beach was stormed “like it was Normandy” as the former New York City mayor was served with notice of his Arizona indictment, sources told The Post.

In front of nearly 75 guests, two officials with Arizona’s attorney general’s office arrived at the shindig around 11 p.m. to hand Giuliani the papers in the case alleging he and 17 others were involved in a plot to overturn the 2020 election, the sources said.

Some partygoers started screaming and one woman even cried as Giuliani was served.

“While crime in Arizona is at an all time high the Arizona Secretary of State’s office felt it was a good use of resources to send multiple agents across the country to storm an 80th birthday party like it was Normandy,” fumed Caroline Wren, a top GOP consultant, who hosted the gathering at her home.

Giuliani’s spokesman Ted Goodman echoed a similar sentiment.

“It’s unfortunate that they chose to barge up and startle guests during a celebration of this man’s 80th birthday,” Goodman told The Post.

“They could’ve shown a little more respect for the man who comforted the nation following September 11th and who stands up for law enforcement and the men and women in blue.”

Giuliani was the last of the 18 defendants in the case to be served in the indictment that was returned by a grand jury last month, Arizona officials said.

Arizona prosecutors had been looking for Giuliani for the last few weeks, but up until Friday night had failed to find him, CNN reported earlier this week.

At the height of the Palm Beach soirée, as many as 200 people, including Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, were in attendance.

Giuliani recorded an hour-long episode of “America’s Mayor Live” on his YouTube channel during the gathering, chatting with guests including Stone and Bannon.

While the sun was still shining, the ex-mayor – donning shades and dress pants with a blue button-down and orange tie – belted out Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” over the microphone in the backyard of the Florida home.

He was all smiles around 10 p.m. as cake was served, posing for photos in a room full of birthday balloons.

But about an hour later the celebratory atmosphere shifted.

After he was served, Giuliani got in his car and left, sources said.

Charges against those indicted in the so-called “fake electors” plot include fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.

Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward were among the 18 indicted.

“In Arizona, and the United States, the people elected Joseph Biden as President on November 3, 2020,” the indictment says. “Unwilling to accept this fact, Defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters.”

It’s been more than 50 years since a Republican won Minnesota in a presidential election, but former President Trump says he’s got “a really good shot” of breaking the losing streak this November in his 2024 rematch with President Biden.

The former president is in the historically reliable blue state Friday evening to headline the Minnesota GOP’s annual Lincoln Reagan fundraising dinner. He began his speech with the usual jabs at Biden’s cognitive ability, but also referenced the recently agreed to debates between the two.

“He’s going to be so jacked up for those, you watch,” Trump joked, later saying he was going to “demand a drug test” for Biden before the debate.

He went on to promise a rollback of Biden’s environmental mandates relating to automakers, railed against the sour economic statistics under Biden, and vowed to fix the ongoing border crisis.

Trump also blasted Biden’s habit of repeating false stories concerning his life experiences. “He’s so full of s–t,” Trump said as the crowd laughed.

Trump lost Minnesota by just 1½ points in his 2016 presidential election victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Four years ago, he lost the state to President Biden by more than seven points in his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

Ahead of the 2020 election, Trump promised a victory in Minnesota, saying that if he lost, “I’m never coming back.”

Fast-forward four years and Trump is back and once again predicting a victory.

“We think we have a really good shot at Minnesota,” Trump emphasized in an interview Wednesday with KSTP, a local TV station in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. “We have great friendships up there.”

Trump added that he’s “worked hard on Minnesota” and that “Tom Emmer is very much involved,” pointing to the House majority whip.

Emmer, who is joining Trump at the state GOP gala, is chairing the Trump campaign in Minnesota even though the former president and his allies helped sink Emmer’s bid last autumn to become House speaker.

As the Trump and Biden campaigns prepare for battle in seven crucial swing states that decided the 2020 election (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which were narrowly won by Biden, and North Carolina, which Trump carried by a razor-thin margin) and will likely once again in the 2024 rematch, both campaigns see opportunities to expand the map.

Two weekends ago at a closed-door Republican National Committee retreat for top-dollar donors at a resort in Palm Beach, Florida, senior Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita and veteran pollster Tony Fabrizio spotlighted internal surveys that suggested both “Minnesota and Virginia are clearly in play.”

“In both states, Trump finds himself in positions to flip key electoral votes in his favor,” the survey, which was shared with Fox News, emphasizes.

And both states have sizable populations of rural white voters without college degrees who disproportionately support the former president.

Biden’s campaign disagrees that either Minnesota or Virginia are up for grabs.

While noting they are “not taking any state or any vote for granted,” Biden campaign battleground states director Dan Kanninen told reporters last week “we don’t see polls that are six or seven months out from a general election, head-to-head numbers certainly, as any more predictive than a weather report is six or seven months out.”

Kanninen highlighted that the campaign has teams on the ground in both states engaging voters.

“We feel strongly the Biden-Harris coalition in both Minnesota and Virginia, which has been strong in the midterms and off-year elections, will continue to be strong for us in the fall of 2024,” he added.

And Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt, pointing to the president’s current fundraising dominance and ground-game advantage in the key battlegrounds, argued “Trump’s team has so little campaign or infrastructure to speak of they’re resorting to leaking memos that say ‘the polls we paid for show us winning.'”

But Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who launched a long-shot and unsuccessful primary challenge against the president, insists “Minnesota’s in play.”

Phillips, in an interview this week on Fox News’ “Special Edition,” argued Minnesota’s “like a lot of states that I think a lot of my fellow Democrats don’t want to confess is the reality. … I’m telling my Democratic colleagues who are supporting President Biden, myself included, that there’s a lot of work to do.”

While Trump’s campaign looks for opportunities to expand the map in Minnesota and Virginia, Biden’s campaign appears to be eyeing swing state North Carolina and Florida.

Trump carried the Sunshine State by less than four points in 2020, but two years ago, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP Sen. Marco Rubio each won re-election by nearly 20 points.

LaCivita argued the Biden campaign was playing “a faux game” in both states but insisted Trump has a “real opportunity in expanding the map in Virginia and Minnesota.”

Trump’s stop in Minnesota comes a week after he held a large rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, a red bastion in an overwhelming blue state where no Republican has carried the state in a presidential election in over three decades. Trump lost the state to Biden by 16 points four years ago.

“We’re going to win New Jersey,” Trump vowed at the rally.

In a revealing twist for the 2024 presidential election, polls show “Never Biden” voters are more common than “Never Trumpers.”

In a recent poll 52% of respondents said they would never vote for President Joe Biden, while 46% said the same for former President Donald Trump.

This flips the narrative from the 2020 election, which saw the opposite be true. It’s another sliver of evidence that Trump has an edge over Biden in November.

Three of four such polls since November have more “Never Biden” voters than “Never Trump” voters.

Voters have had a more favorable view of Trump’s presidency since Biden took office, and that appears to be manifesting in the polls.

The “Never Trump” movement originally began in 2015, as Trump built momentum toward his eventual 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with many conservatives vowing to never support him.

That group of Republicans united behind former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in 2024, and primary voters are still casting votes for her despite Trump’s clinching of the Republican nomination.

Recently, Haley grabbed 21.3% of the vote away from Trump in Maryland’s primary this month.

Trump is leading by five points in a head-to-head matchup with Biden as well as by three points when third parties are included in an Echelon Insights new poll.

Both candidates recently scheduled a June 27 CNN debate and a Sept. 10 ABC debate, with other debates pending as well.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said on Thursday that his office is “demanding accountability” after Kansas City doxxed Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker on social media following a commencement speech he gave over the weekend.

“My office is demanding accountability after @KansasCity doxxed @buttkicker7 last night for daring to express his religious beliefs,” Bailey posted on X. “I will enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act to ensure Missourians are not targeted for their free exercise of religion. Stay tuned.”

The official Kansas City X account, which stated what town Butker resides in, later deleted the post and issued an apology: “We apologies [sic] for our previous tweet. It was shared in error.”

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas acknowledged that the post was “clearly inappropriate.”

“A message appeared earlier this evening from a City public account,” he wrote.

“The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account. The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels.”

A message appeared earlier this evening from a City public account.

The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account. The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels.

— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) May 16, 2024

Butker ripped President Joe Biden and woke diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies while delivering a commencement address at a Catholic liberal arts school on Saturday.

The three-time Super Bowl champion suggested that Biden, who, like Butler, is Catholic, has betrayed his faith with his support of abortion access.

“Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues,” Butker said during the undergraduate ceremony at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.

Butker said “things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for degenerate cultural values in media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.”

The place kicker then made reference to Biden without mentioning his name, describing how the president made a sign of the cross during a pro-abortion speech by a fellow Democrat in Florida last month.

“Our nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally,” Butker said.

“He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I’m sure to many people, it appears you can be both Catholic and pro-choice,” he added.

Biden is “not alone,” Butker went on.

“From the man behind the COVID lockdowns, to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common — they are Catholic,” Butker said. “This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn’t cut it.”