The FBI has arrested an Afghan man who was inspired by the Islamic State militant organization to plot an Election Day attack targeting large crowds in the U.S.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, told investigators after his arrest Monday that he had planned his attack to coincide with Election Day next month.

He and a juvenile co-conspirator expected to die as martyrs, according to charging documents.

Tawhedi, who entered the U.S. in 2021 on a special immigrant visa, had taken steps in recent weeks to advance his attack plans, including by ordering AK-47 rifles.

He liquidated his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan.

‘Terrorism is still the FBI’s number one priority, and we will use every resource to protect the American people,’ FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.

After he was arrested, the Justice Department said, Tawhedi told investigators he had planned an attack for Election Day that would target large gatherings of people.

Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization.

He faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for providing support to ISIS and 15 years for obtaining a firearm to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism.

An FBI affidavit does not reveal precisely how Tawhedi came onto investigators’ radar, but cites what it says is evidence from recent months showing his determination in planning an attack.

A photograph from July included in the affidavit depicts a man investigators identified as Tawhedi reading to two young children, including his daughter, ‘a text that describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife.’

‘As charged, the Justice Department foiled the defendant’s plot to acquire semi-automatic weapons and commit a violent attack in the name of ISIS on U.S. soil on Election Day,’ said Attorney General Merrick Garland.

‘We will continue to combat the ongoing threat that ISIS and its supporters pose to America’s national security, and we will identify, investigate, and prosecute the individuals who seek to terrorize the American people,’ he continued.

‘I am deeply grateful to the public servants of the FBI, National Security Division, and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Oklahoma for their work to disrupt this attack and for the work they do every day to protect our country.’

According to the criminal complaint, Tawhedi entered the United States on September 9, 2021 on a special immigrant visa.

It said an FBI ‘confidential human source’ contacted Tawhedi after he recently advertised the sale of his family’s personal property on Facebook.

The FBI source said he needed a computer for a gun business he was starting and Tawhedi expressed interest in purchasing two AK-47 assault rifles and ammunition, according to the complaint.

On Monday, Tawhedi and the juvenile met with ‘FBI assets’ at a rural location in Oklahoma and purchased two AK-47 assault rifles, 10 magazines, and 500 rounds of ammunition, it said.

They were immediately arrested.

It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. A message was left with the federal public defender´s office in Oklahoma City and no telephone numbers were listed for Tawhedi or his relatives in public records.

Tawhedi entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa, a program that permits eligible Afghans who helped Americans despite great personal risk to themselves and their loved ones to apply for entry into America with their families.

Eligible Afghans include interpreters for the U.S. military as well as individuals integral to the American embassy in Kabul. While the program has existed since 2009, the number of applicants skyrocketed after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign insisted Tuesday that CBS News release an “unedited transcript” of Vice President Kamala Harris’ entire “60 Minutes” interview after her “word salad” about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was cut from Monday’s broadcast.

The dramatic edit was made after “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker noted that “it seems that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not listening.”

The 59-year-old Democratic nominee’s response in the Monday night show was completely different and far more coherent than her rambling answer showcased in a preview clip released Sunday.

“Well, Bill … the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris said in the clip shared by “60 Minutes” on X over the weekend.

However, in the prime-time broadcast, Harris answered, “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”

Watch:

, . pic.twitter.com/VthGBT721T

— Steven Miller, MD, PhD (@SageListener) October 8, 2024

A Trump campaign spokeswoman “60 Minutes” of “deceptively” editing out Harris’ “idiotic response” to Whitaker.

“On Sunday, 60 Minutes teased Kamala’s highly-anticipated sit-down interview with this epic word salad that received significant criticism on social media,” Trump 2024 national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Post. “During the full interview on Monday evening, the word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response.”

Leavitt added that she was left wondering what else was left on the cutting room floor.

“Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air?” she said.

“The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview,” Leavitt continued. “We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it. What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?”

Trump, 78, refused to participate in the show’s presidential election special despite the campaign previously telling “60 Minutes” producers that he would take part, correspondent Scott Pelley claimed on Monday’s broadcast.

The Trump campaign has denied that any appearance was nailed down, and the former president said last week that he won’t do an interview with “60 Minutes” until the show apologizes for dismissing The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story during the 2020 campaign.

Former President Trump’s campaign is rejecting accounts in journalist Bob Woodward’s new book that the Republican presidential nominee has held multiple phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office in January 2021.

Woodward also wrote in his book, “War,” that Trump agreed to secretly send Putin COVID-19 testing equipment.

Steven Cheung, the communications director for the Trump campaign, told The Hill in a statement that “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true” and said Trump gave no access to the journalist for the latest book, as Trump had for past books.

Cheung said Woodward “suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

The spokesperson further pointed to Trump’s lawsuit against Woodward, in which the former president is seeking $50 million from the veteran journalist over his publication of tapes of interviews he conducted with Trump while he was in office between December 2019 and August 2020, which featured in the 2020 book “Rage.”

Woodward and his publisher filed to get the case dismissed in September 2023.

Cheung’s comments came in response to a CNN report on Woodward’s new book “War,” detailing that, in 2020, Trump “secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbott Point of Care Covid test machines for his personal use.”

Putin told Trump to not tell anybody, according to Woodward, with Trump responding, “I don’t care … fine.”

Woodward wrote that, according to Trump’s aides, there have been as many as seven phone calls between Trump and Putin since Trump left the White House in 2021, according to CNN.

Woodward also cited Trump aide Jason Miller as not being aware of any calls between Trump and Putin, but added that Avril Haines, President Biden’s director of national intelligence, did not conclusively rule out contacts between the Russian leader and the former president.

“I would not purport to be aware of all contacts with Putin. I wouldn’t purport to speak to what President Trump may or may not have done,” Haines said, according to Woodward.

The United States Supreme Court, coming off of possibly its most historic and impactful term in United States history earlier this year, is set to consider a new docket of cases that could have significant impacts when the court issues a new round of rulings next year.

While most of the new cases before the high court lack the explosive political nature of —setting major precedent regarding presidential immunity (Trump v. United States), rolling back the Biden-Harris Department of Justice’s aggressive January 6 prosecutions (Fischer v. United States) or undoing decades of federal regulatory procedure (Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo) several cases still carry significant legal and constitutional weight.

Before the court in its new term are cases dealing with so-called “ghost guns,” discretionary immigration actions, a Tennessee sex-change ban, and even a lawsuit filed by the Mexican government alleging U.S. gun manufacturers are trafficking firearms to cartels.

Additionally, the Court will hear a case on the constitutionality of Texas’s age verification requirements for pornographic websites. and a case regarding workplace discrimination and whether workers representative of demographic majorities have a higher bar to prove bias.

Ghost Guns.

One of the most anticipated cases of the term is Garland v. VanDerStok. The case revolves around a 2022 rule issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which would effectively extend licensing and serial number provisions required under the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) to so-called ghost guns—firearms produced at home often through the use of 3D printing.

The respondents in the case are challenging the agency’s regulatory authority to unilaterally redefine the definition of “frame or receiver” and “firearm” under the GCA. Garland v. VanDerStok marks the first significant challenge to federal regulatory authority after the Supreme Court struck down much of the long-standing Chevron Deference legal doctrine, which granted federal agencies broad regulatory powers, in its Loper decision earlier this year.

Immigration Visa Appeals.

A case that could have major implications for U.S. immigration policy is Bouarfa v. Mayorkas. The high court is being asked to determine whether immigration visa applicants are entitled to legal appeal and judicial review over discretionary application decisions.

The case stems from a lawsuit brought by Amina Bouarfa, a U.S. citizen, regarding her attempt to obtain an immigrant visa for her husband, Ala’a Hamayel. In 2014, Bouarfa submitted a Form I-130 seeking to classify Hamayel as her immediate relative under U.S. immigration law. While the petition was initially approved a year later, it was later revoked under the discretionary authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security after it was discovered that Hamayel had previously attempted to evade U.S. immigration laws by entering into a sham marriage.

Subsequently, Bouarfa filed suit in a Florida federal District Court challenging the Secretary’s discretionary authority. However, the court dismissed the lawsuit, claiming it had no authority to review a discretionary action by the executive branch. The U.S. Eleventh Circuit later upheld the dismissal.

Trans Surgeries for Minors.

In United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court will hear arguments as to whether laws enacted by Tennessee and Kentucky that restrict access to sex-change surgeries for minors constitute a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and its incorporation of due process rights. Under the 2023 laws passed by Tennesee and Kentucky, minors are prohibited from receiving puberty blockers, hormone replacement treatments, or sex-change surgeries from healthcare providers operating in either respective state.

The plaintiffs in the case contend that both state laws violate 14th Amendment protections and were initially successful in securing injections against the prohibitions from taking effect. However, the injunctions were later lifted by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals—meaning the laws have since been allowed to go into effect.

Mexico Sues Gun Makers.

In a case with international repercussions, the court will hear Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. In this case, the government of Mexico is suing U.S. gun manufacturers, alleging the companies have been complicit in trafficking firearms across the southern border to Mexican drug cartels.

The question before the court is whether the lawsuit brought by Mexico can proceed under the conditions set out by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Initially, the lawsuit was halted after a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts found the Mexican government’s legal claims against the gun makers were barred under the PLCAA. However, the First Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the determination on several of Mexico’s claims—citing the PLCAA’s “predicate exception.”

Justices will decide whether Mexico’s claims of arms trafficking and injury to its citizens violate U.S. law and trigger the exception to legal protection for the gun manufacturers under the PLCAA.

Texas Age Verification.

A prominent First Amendment case before the court is Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton, which revolves around a Texas law requiring the implementation of age verification procedures for pornographic websites. The court is being asked to determine whether the Texas regulations violate the free speech right of pornographic websites and whether specific provisions run afoul of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

An earlier holding by a federal District Court resulted in a preliminary injunction against the Texas law. The District Court determined that Texas’s age verification requirements failed the strict scrutiny test, meaning it was not sufficiently tailored in a narrow scope to achieve the government’s compelling interest. Additionally, the lower court, in issuing the injections, held that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on First Amendment grounds against Texas upon further appeal.

However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the injunction and reversed the District Court’s holding in part, determining the rational basis review test was more appropriate for the case.

Straight Discrimination?

The most peculiar case of the Supreme Court term is Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, which revolves around a reverse discrimination claim. Last Friday, the high court granted certiorari, meaning review, regarding a federal appeals court decision rejecting a reverse discrimination claim brought by a former Ohio Department of Youth Services employee.

At the heart of the case is whether reverse discrimination lawsuits brought by those lacking status as a protected class—or demographic majorities—require a higher evidentiary burden. The lawsuit was brought by an Ohio woman who claims she was passed over for a state government job due to her heterosexual orientation.

Marlean Ames contends she was denied a promotion by her supervisor, a lesbian woman.
Instead, the job went to another lesbian woman, though Ames argues the selected applicant was unqualified. Subsequently, Ames was removed from her position and replaced by a gay man.

The plaintiff’s lawsuit was thrown out by a federal court, which found she failed to demonstrate a statistically significant pattern of discrimination against demographic majorities by her employer. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the lower court decision, resulting in the final appeal to the Supreme Court.

Hurricane Milton approached known maximum storm strength limits on Monday night, with wind gusts briefly topping 200 miles per hour.

The blistering power of the storm — the second most powerful ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico — prompted calls for a new Category 6 designation.

“This is nothing short of astronomical,” Florida meteorologist Noah Bergren said as Milton reached sustained winds of 180 mph and “gusts 200+ mph.”

“I am at a loss for words to meteorologically describe to you the storm’s small eye and intensity,” he marveled.

“This hurricane is nearing the mathematical limit of what Earth’s atmosphere over this ocean water can produce.”

After forming as a Category 5 storm, Milton on Tuesday was downgraded to a Category 4 after hitting Mexico’s Yucatan Penninsula with a glancing blow. By Tuesday night, it was back to Category 5 again as it churned toward Florida’s gulf coast, putting millions of lives at risk.

After forming in the Gulf of Mexico, Milton rapidly accelerated from a tropical storm with 60-mph winds Sunday morning to a deadly Category 5 hurricane by Monday with sustained winds of 180 mph — exhibiting an incredible trebling of power in only 36 hours.

If the hurricane reached winds of 192 mph, it would have surpassed a rare threshold that just five storms have reached since 1980, USA Today reported.

Its exceptional intensity has prompted calls from some meteorologists to expand the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to include a new Category 6 for hurricanes.

While no such official category exists, professor Michael E. Mann tweeted that “Milton might have actually breached the 192 mph ‘Cat 6′ cutoff.”

Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Jim Kossin, a retired federal scientist and science adviser at the nonprofit First Street Foundation, co-authored a study published earlier this year exploring whether there should be a new category for hurricanes.

“We find that a number of recent storms have already achieved this hypothetical Category 6 intensity, and based on multiple independent lines of evidence examining the highest simulated and potential peak wind speeds, more such storms are projected as the climate continues to warm,” they wrote.

However, Fox Weather meteorologist Mike Rawlins told The Post Tuesday that a new category is “unnecessary” and the Saffir-Simpson scale remains the gold standard for measuring hurricanes.

“There are movements out in the meteorological realm calling for the scale to be retired and for a new method of measuring a storm’s intensity to be created since the storm surge and flash flooding often do more damage than the wind alone. But I am not aware of any work happening on that at this time,” he said.

The late Robert Simpson, co-creator of the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, said in 1999 that creating a Category 6 hurricane would be “immaterial” due to the extreme damage to humans and buildings already caused by Category 5 storms.

Milton is the fourth-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record by barometric pressure — a measure of storm intensity — with central barometric pressure at 897 millibars

Only five hurricanes have dipped below 900 in official records dating back more than 170 years, according to the Miami Herald.

Brazil’s Supreme Court lifted its ban on Elon Musk’s X Tuesday after being blocked in Latin America’s largest nation for more than a month.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes prohibited the social media platform in Latin America’s largest nation on Aug. 30, after the company refused to comply with his order that included appointing a legal representative for the platform in Brazil.

The Brazilian Supreme Court said Tuesday that as of Sept. 27, X proved it had met the two necessary conditions to lift the ban — blocking profiles that disseminated false information and appointing a legal representative for the company.

X also paid 28.6 million reals ($5.1 million) in fines, per the court decision.

Musk had vowed not to comply with an earlier court order blocking accounts on X as Brazil tried to crack down on online misinformation.

Moraes announced in April that he was investigating the billionaire for obstruction of justice. Musk accused Moraes of “destroying” free speech “for political purposes.”

A Delaware judge ruled Monday that the Armenta family’s lawsuit against Deadspin for accusing their son of wearing “blackface” at a Chiefs game last year can proceed.

In 2023, Deadspin writer Carron Phillips wrote an article using an image of nine-year-old Holden Armenta sporting black and red Kansas City Chiefs face paint at a game, showing only the black half of his face.

Phillips accused Holden of finding a way to “hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time” and accused his parents of teaching him “hatred.”

Holden’s parents Raul Jr. and Shannon later filed a lawsuit in February accusing the sports blog of maliciously attacking Holden by selectively posting only one half of his face and accusing them of racism.

On Monday, Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg denied Deadspin’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, agreeing that the blog posted “provable false assertions” as facts rather than opinion.

“Deadspin published an image of a child displaying his passionate fandom as a backdrop for its critique of the NFL’s diversity efforts and, in its description of the child, crossed the fine line protecting its speech from defamation claims,” the judge wrote.

“Having reviewed the complaint, the court concludes that Deadspin’s statements accusing [Holden] of wearing black face and Native headdress ‘to hate black people and the Native American at the same time,’ and that he was taught this hatred by his parents, are provable false assertions of fact and are therefore actionable,” Lugg added.

Lugg also refused to dismiss the case based on the assertion that the case should have been filed in the Armenta family’s home state of California rather than Delaware, where Deadspin’s parent company G/O Media resides. G/O Media later sold Deadspin to Lineup Publishing one month after the lawsuit was filed.

Deadspin did not retract the original article. However, an editor’s note was added to address the controversy.

“We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan or his family. To that end, our story was updated on Dec. 7 to remove any photos, tweets, links, or otherwise identifying information about the fan. We have also revised the headline to better reflect the substance of the story,” the note read.

The headline was also changed from “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress” to “The NFL Must Ban Native Headdress And Culturally Insensitive Face Paint in the Stands.”

Phillips initially doubled down on his accusations in a since-deleted X post.

“For the idiots in my mentions who are treating this as some harmless act because the other side of his face was painted red, I could make the argument that it makes it even worse. Y’all are the ones who hate [M]exican but wear sombreros on cinco [de Mayo],” Phillips said.

Clips from HBO’s Satoshi Nakamoto documentary, which leaked hours before the firm premiered Tuesday night, seemed to finger former Bitcoin developer Peter Todd as the cryptocurrency’s creator – but Todd denied it.

In an email to CoinDesk, Todd said filmmaker Cullen Hoback, best known for identifying the person behind the QAnon conspiracy theory in an earlier series for HBO, was “grasping at straws” if he’s identifying Todd as Satoshi.

“Yes, that interview did happen and I believe that specific shot isn’t deepfaked,” he confirmed, though he added he had not yet seen the documentary.

“Of course, I’m not Satoshi,” Todd said. “It’s ironic that a director who is also known for a documentary on QAnon has resorted to QAnon style coincidence-based conspiracy thinking here too.”

Even in the clips circulating on social media, Todd called the theory that he is Satoshi “ludicrous.”

On Tuesday afternoon in New York, hours before the scheduled premiere of “Money Electric: the Bitcoin Mystery,” the odds on Polymarket’s bet over whom the film will identify as Satoshi overwhelmingly favored “Other/Multiple.” At the time of the Polymarket bet’s creation, Todd was not listed as a possibility, so anyone who wanted to bet on him being the film’s “reveal” would have to choose “Other/Multiple.”

Previously, cypherpunk Len Sassaman and then computer programmer Nick Szabo held the lead on Polymarket’s list of possible HBO-toshi’s.

No firm evidence

The documentary, which lasted about 100 minutes, delved into the history of both Bitcoin and other crypto projects, but did not present any firm evidence supporting the idea that Todd was Satoshi.

There was some circumstantial evidence, including Todd’s interest in cryptography from a young age, his relationship with Adam Back (who emailed with Satoshi), his technical ability and Satoshi’s use of British/Canadian spellings juxtaposed with the fact that Todd is from Canada. The film’s most tangible evidence hinged on a 2010 public forum post in which Todd responded to one of Satoshi’s posts. Hoback argued Todd’s post was a continuation of Satoshi’s post, but accidentally sent from an account with Todd’s name on it instead of Satoshi’s.

However, the documentary did not definitively conclude that Todd was indeed Satoshi. Even the final confrontation between Hoback and Todd – the clip that was earlier leaked on social media – was speculative.

Hoback followed up by citing another blog post where Todd said he was “probably the world’s leading expert” on how to sacrifice bitcoin, though even the filmmaker acknowledges this was a tenuous confirmation at best.

“It was hard not to read this as an admission, like Peter wanted his inner circle to trust that he had, in fact, sacrificed the bitcoins and destroyed all access,” he said. “But this wasn’t proof.”

Bitcoin that Satoshi mined has never moved from its wallet, leading to speculation Satoshi is either dead or purposefully prevented themselves from touching the coins.

The confrontation

In the documentary, Hoback confronts Todd, laying out his theory of how and why Todd hid his supposed involvement in the invention of Bitcoin. Todd shakes his head and laughs at Hoback’s assertions.

“I will admit you’re pretty creative. You come up with some crazy theories. It’s ludicrous,” Todd said in the film. “But I’ll say, yeah, of course I’m Satoshi. And I’m Craig Wright.”

This is clearly a joke, not a confession: Todd has previously made similar cracks that he “is Satoshi,” telling “What Bitcoin Did” podcast host Peter McCormack in a 2019 interview: “I am Satoshi, as is everyone else.”

Todd, still laughing, warns Hoback that he’s drawn an incorrect conclusion.

“This is going to be very funny when you put this into the documentary and a bunch of bitcoiners watch it,” Todd said. “I suspect a lot of them will be very happy if you go this route because it’s yet another example of journalists really missing the point in a way that’s very funny.”

(PubKey, a bitcoin bar in New York City, showed the documentary Tuesday night. Viewers there laughed at the suggestion Todd is Satoshi. Someone said: “They left enough plausible deniability that you [a random person] could be Satoshi.”)

Hoback responds by asking what the point is.

“The point is to make bitcoin the global currency,” Todd responds.

Back, the CEO of Bitcoin development firm Blockstream who is standing next to Todd in the confrontation scene, did not respond to a request for comment from CoinDesk.

Though an early Bitcoin developer and someone deeply involved in the early years of Bitcoin, Todd has never been a prime suspect in journalists’ years-long hunt for Satoshi. Figures like Hal Finney, Nick Szabo and Back are most frequently suggested to be Bitcoin’s creator, though all have denied it.

During the McCormack podcast, Todd said that he bought his first bitcoin when the price per coin was 20 cents (which would mean he made the purchase around October 2010, two years after the bitcoin white paper was released).

Back posted on X Monday that, “for people betting, they are betting on what the documentary concluded. Which is probably not going to be true, because no one knows who Satoshi is. So they should keep that in mind.”

Previous attempts by the media to unveil Satoshi’s true identity have failed, with outlets incorrectly naming figures like programmer Dorian Nakamoto and known-pretender Craig Wright as Satoshi.

A Department of Homeland Security inspector general’s report from August reveals more than $7 billion remain in emergency funding that could be used for natural disasters — even though DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said last week none was available after Hurricane Helene.

Mayorkas, 64, told reporters following the devastation of Helene in North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “does not have the funds” to endure more hurricanes this fall.

“We are expecting another hurricane hitting,” the DHS chief said Oct. 2, days before Hurricane Milton began picking up speed in the Gulf of Mexico. “We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and what is imminent.”

But DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari found in his Aug. 14 report that as of October 2022, FEMA had $8.3 billion in unliquidated funds meant to relieve declared disasters from 2012 or earlier.

More than $7 billion of that “could potentially be returned to the Disaster Relief Fund,” the report notes, referring to FEMA’s dedicated fund for natural calamities.

So far, the feds have paid just $4 million to Americans hit by Helene in the Southeast, providing up to $750 in immediate aid for individuals to help cover the cost of groceries and emergency supplies.

The storm has killed at least 232 people and caused more than $47.5 billion in devastation.

“It took one week for some of the county mayors in my home state to even get a phone call from FEMA, and Kamala Harris has the nerve to announce ‘a dire humanitarian situation’ in another country,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn told The Post, referencing the VP’s announcement of $157 million in US aid to Lebanon over the weekend.

“Our own people in Tennessee, North Carolina, and in the Southeast are the ones facing ‘a dire humanitarian situation’ and need ‘food, water, and shelter,’” Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said. “America Last is the theme of this administration, and Kamala Harris has proven she will continue that legacy.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy of pushing “disinformation-misinformation” by asking specifically about the Lebanon funding in the context of the disaster.

“President Biden is fond of saying, ‘Show your budget and I will tell you what you value,’” Doocy said. “If he’s got money for people in Lebanon right now without Congress having to come back, what does it say about his values? There’s not enough money right now for people in North Carolina who need it. That’s not misinformation.”

Jean-Pierre cited more than $200 million in allocated disaster relief funding and claimed it had not been exhausted yet by individuals applying for the aid, but said the president was nevertheless asking for more funding from Congress.

“There’s money that we are allocating to the impacted areas. And there’s money there to help people who truly need it,” she went on. “We have the money available to help survivors of Hurricane Helene and also Hurricane Milton.”

“Now there’s going to be a shortfall, right?” she added. “Because we don’t know how bad Hurricane Milton is going to be. And so we’re going to need additional funding.”

“That’s exactly what I just asked about — and you said it was just misinformation,” Doocy said in exasperation.

“No, what you’re asking me is why Congress needs to come back and do their job. That’s what you’re asking me,” Jean-Pierre retorted. “You may not want that, but that’s OK. That’s what this president wants and that’s what the vice president wants.”

Conservative critics like the popular Libs of TikTok account on X also pointed to another $3.9 billion in planned Disaster Relief Funding that had been set aside in September for COVID-19 relief funding to state and local governments, nonprofits and schools.

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has shelled out $1.4 billion from separate funds — the Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP)and the Shelter and Service Program (SSP) — to state and local governments as well as non-governmental groups helping migrants settle in the US.

Republicans have argued the funds should be redirected to help with the federal response to Hurricane Helene — but Mayorkas’ office responded that his agency could not do so since Congress did not authorize the move.

“Rather than ensuring FEMA is ready to respond to hurricanes and other emergencies, FEMA has been pulled into a border crisis mission,” charged five Republican senators in a Friday letter to President Biden.

“We are very concerned that FEMA’s role at the border has impacted its readiness and preparation efforts for Hurricane Helene and its response efforts,” said Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Roger Marshall of Kansas.

Other GOP lawmakers lashed out at Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of “political posturing” after the catastrophe.

“VP Harris: I was talking about politicians like YOU using this disaster for political posturing,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) posted Monday on X after the Harris campaign posted one of his quotes decrying “political posturing, finger pointing or conspiracy theories” to social media.

“Claiming to be ‘working around the clock’ while you don’t even plug in your headphones for a staged photo-op,” Tillis charged. “Where were YOU as Ft. Liberty troops were standing by for days?”

Harris, 59, posted a photo last week to her official X account aboard Air Force Two apparently taking notes on an important phone call — without her headphones plugged in.

In total, Congress appropriated more than $30 billion for FEMA in fiscal year 2024, according to the five senators.

Tucker Carlson sat down with Elon Musk for an extensive interview this week, where they covered a broad spectrum of topics that ranged from political endorsements and disaster relief efforts to social issues and technological advancements.

Musk offered his perspective on current events – including his enthusiastic support for Donald Trump, his concerns about democracy, and his criticisms of government decisions affecting his businesses like Starlink. Musk also shared his views on broader societal trends, such as the declining birthrate in Europe and the influence of religion in modern society. Musk also shared his thoughts on the impact of technology in everyday life, including artificial intelligence and the intersection of big tech and global politics.

All In On Trump

“If Trump loses, I really fear for what’s going to be left of democracy in America,” said Musk, suggesting that immigration policies have been manipulated to bolster Democratic voter bases, potentially undermining the fairness of elections.

Elon Musk is “ALL IN” for President Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/5g4detgpkk

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 7, 2024

Musk also suggested that if Trump loses, “I’m fucked.”

“If Trump loses, I am fuc*3d. How long do you think my prison sentence is gonna be?”

Elon Musk is simply supporting the candidate he believes is best for America’s future. No one can arrest him, regardless of who wins—supporting a candidate is not a crime. pic.twitter.com/xKBLjBbMp9

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) October 7, 2024

Tucker: “If [Kamala Harris] wins, how can they let X continue?”@elonmusk: “They’ll try to prosecute the company. They’ll try to prosecute me.” pic.twitter.com/84FyGr4iFs

— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) October 7, 2024

Starlink to Hurricane Victims

Musk discusses the use of Starlink to aid victims of Hurricane Helene, criticizing the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to cancel a contract that Starlink had won previously. According to Musk, “The FCC pulled the rug under us after a political decision,” suggesting that the decision was influenced by partisan politics rather than practical considerations.

“[Starlink] is the primary means of communication in the devastated areas.”@elonmusk and @TuckerCarlson on Hurricane Helene and how Musk’s @Starlink is helping. pic.twitter.com/TT6k96jmx7

— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) October 7, 2024

The Last Election

Musk warns that if Trump doesn’t win in November, it will be the end for genuine democratic elections in the United States. He argues that certain policies favor a demographic shift intended to secure a permanent Democratic majority. “If Trump doesn’t win this election, it’s the last election we’re going to have.”

Elon Musk: “If Trump doesn’t win this election, it’s the last election we’re going to have”

pic.twitter.com/aF6efJKZiG

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 7, 2024

Epstein and Diddy

The pair then discussed the Epstein client list, with Musk slamming the lack of accountability for high-profile individuals implicated in Epstein’s scandals – and predicting that if Trump wins, the Epstein client list “is going to become public.”

“It’s strange that there has been no significant action against those on the list,” Musk remarked.

“If Trump wins, that Epstein client list is going to become public.”@elonmusk explains why he thinks Kamala Harris receives so much support from the elites.

“Between Diddy and Epstein there’s probably several thousand hours of footage. pic.twitter.com/qBz2rbwIlW

— Tucker Carlson Network (@TCNetwork) October 7, 2024

ELON: “I’d like to see a match-up of the top 100 puppet masters and the Epstein client list.. Strong over-lap!” pic.twitter.com/bptUFaBWjp

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 7, 2024

Vaccines

Musk then touched on vaccines, slamming the push for repeated COVID-19 jabs and the morality of forcing people to take them. He questions the efficacy and safety of continually administering boosters, especially without substantial data to support long-term health impacts.

ELON MUSK ON “VACCINES”: “We shouldn’t force people to take vaccines.”

Note that while he is RIGHT about this, he is 100% WRONG that “vaccines” ever saved any lives or have done anything good whatsoever. See tweet 2 and 3. pic.twitter.com/RzRPYrFFsP

— Sense Receptor (@SenseReceptor) October 7, 2024

The Movement to Decriminalize Crime

Musk criticizes policies that he perceives as effectively decriminalizing certain behaviors, linking them to rising crime rates in cities like San Francisco. He specifically slams laws that reduce penalties for theft under $1,000, arguing that they hurt small businesses and encourage lawlessness. He also slammed California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose policies he says are ineffective and detrimental to the state’s economic and social health. Musk predicts that these policies, if not revised, might lead to significant long-term problems for California.

Europe’s Declining Birthrate (53:11) The conversation turns to Europe’s declining birthrate, with Musk expressing concerns about demographic trends and their implications for Europe’s future. He emphasizes the need for policies that encourage family formation and higher birth rates to sustain economic and cultural vitality.

We Need Religion

Musk emphasized the importance of religion in society, arguing that it provides a necessary moral framework and sense of community. He warns against the loss of religious adherence, suggesting it could lead to a breakdown in societal cohesion.

NEW: Elon Musk says he believes there is a higher power, says there “must be some creator or creative force that caused our existence.”

Tucker: Do you believe there is a power higher than people?

Musk: Yeah… there’s a lot we don’t know. We don’t like why does reality exist?… pic.twitter.com/YY5paVVn9i

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 7, 2024

Watch the full interview:

Elon Musk is all in.

(0:00) Elon Musk Is All in on Donald Trump
(6:35) Providing Starlink to Victims of Hurricane Helene
(9:22) If Trump Loses, This Is the Last Election
(21:49) The Epstein and Diddy Client List
(33:38) Vaccines
(35:49) The Movement to Decriminalize Crime… pic.twitter.com/jNqB1ThqQz

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 7, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris took aim at Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Monday for reportedly not taking her calls regarding federal storm relief efforts as a second powerful hurricane bears down on Florida.

“People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games at this moment in these crisis situations…is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,” Harris charged on Monday. “It is about political gamesmanship, instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is to put the people first.”

The vice president’s comments came a couple of hours after reports from NBC and later ABC News that the Florida governor was not taking calls from Harris regarding storm recovery efforts, citing unnamed aides to the governor who said the calls seemed political in nature.

DeSantis, in an interview on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Monday evening, fired back, calling the vice president “delusional.”

Asked earlier on Monday during a hurricane news conference about reports of her call, DeSantis said he wasn’t aware Harris was trying to reach him.

“I didn’t know that she had called. I’m not sure who they called. They didn’t call me,” he said. “It wasn’t anything that anybody in my office did, in terms of saying it was political.”

Asked again about the report, the governor reiterated “I didn’t know that she had called.”

Hours later, in his Fox News Channel interview, DeSantis told host Sean Hannity that Harris “has no role in this process.”

“I’ve had storms under both President Trump and President Biden. And I’ve worked well with both of them. She’s the first one who’s trying to politicize the storm. And she’s doing that just because of her campaign,” the governor argued.

Watch:

The dispute comes as Hurricane Milton, now an extremely dangerous Category 5 storm, is on course to slam into Florida Wednesday evening.

Milton is bearing down on Florida as the death toll rises and roughly a quarter of a million people remain without power or running water a week and a half after Hurricane Helen tore a path of destruction through Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, and parts of Virginia.

President Biden made stops last week in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida to survey storm damage from Hurricane Helene. While Biden was in Florida, DeSantis was holding a separate press event across the state in another area damaged from the storm.

“We were in Florida, we invited the governor of Florida to come, it was his decision not to attend,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. “The president has reached out around Hurricane Helene. He reached out. It is up to the governor, it is really up to the governor.”

The White House said hours later that the president held separate calls with DeSantis and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor “to get a firsthand report on recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene, and to discuss preparations for Hurricane Milton.”

According to the White House, Biden urged the governor and the mayor to “call him directly if there is anything that can be done to further support the response and recovery efforts.”

Asked about the federal response, DeSantis said during his news conference that “we have gotten what we need from the feds….the president has approved what we asked for….I’m thankful for that.”

“Everything we’ve asked for from President Biden, he’s approved,” DeSantis highlighted.

With four weeks to go until Election Day in November and Harris and former President Trump locked in a bitter margin-of-error showdown in the race to succeed Biden in the White House, and with two of the hardest-hit states from Helene — North Carolina and Georgia — among the seven key battlegrounds that will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 election – the politics of federal disaster relief are once again front and center on the campaign trail.

Trump, for a week and a half, has been repeatedly attacking Biden and Harris over the federal response to Hurricane Helene. Harris, on Monday, clapped back, accusing Trump of pushing “a lot of mis and disinformation.”

The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday reinstated a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, reversing a lower court’s ruling as it reviews an appeal.

The ban will go into effect at 5 p.m. local time, but allows some exceptions, such as to protect the life and health of the mother, and some situations where a fetal anomaly is detected, per NBC News.

The lower court lifted the state ban on abortions after six weeks last month, which made it legal for the first 22 weeks of pregnancy.

The initial six-week ban was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp nearly five years ago, but did not go into effect until 2022.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his opinion last month that women in Georgia have the right to “control [their] own [bodies], to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with [their] healthcare choices.”

“That power is not, however, unlimited,” McBurney wrote. “When a fetus growing inside a woman reaches viability, when society can assume care and responsibility for that separate life, then — and only then — may society intervene.”

Multiple reproductive rights groups slammed Monday’s ruling in statements, claiming that it has sowed uncertainty and “wreaked havoc” on the lives of many voters.

“It is cruel that our patients’ ability to access the reproductive health care they need has been taken away yet again,” Feminist Women’s Health Center executive director Kwajelyn Jackson said in a statement.

“This ban has wreaked havoc on Georgians’ lives, and our patients deserve better.”

A Nevada politician was found guilty of taking money meant for a memorial honoring a police officer killed in the line of duty and spending it on plastic surgery, rent and her daughter’s wedding.

A federal jury on Thursday convicted Michele Fiore, a Republican justice of the peace and former Las Vegas City Council member, of six counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Fiore, 54, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 6 and faces up to 140 years in prison — 20 for each count.

Fiore — a politician dubbed “Lady Trump” by outlets and pundits for her gun-toting, fiery brand of conservatism — pleaded not guilty when she was arraigned in July. During last week’s trial, prosecutors accused Fiore of bilking donors who thought they were contributing to a statue of Alyn Beck, a 41-year-old Las Vegas police officer who was shot with his partner in 2014.

“Michele Fiore used a tragedy to line her pockets,” federal prosecutor Dahoud Askar said in court Thursday.

According to an indictment, the fraud scheme unfolded over a seven-month period between July 2019 and January 2020, while Fiore served on the Las Vegas City Council.

In 2018, the city had broken ground on the Alyn Beck Memorial Park in a ceremony during which Fiore proposed that a statue of the officer be installed at the park’s entrance, court records state. And while a private real estate development company had already agreed to pay a sculptor to create and install the statue, Fiore began a fundraising campaign — soliciting more than $70,000 from Nevadans, including Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), who was the sheriff of Clark County at the time.

Lombardo, who testified against Fiore, said in court that he had authorized a $5,000 donation from his campaign fund in 2019 to go to Fiore’s political action committee to help pay for the statue — adding that he wouldn’t have made the payment if he had known the funds would be used for Fiore’s personal gain.

Though Fiore promised donors that “100% of the contributions” would go toward erecting the statue, no part of the raised funds were actually used in the memorial, the indictment states. Instead, Fiore laundered the money through front companies and relatives and used it to maintain her luxurious lifestyle, prosecutors said. Some of the donations, they claimed, were used by Fiore to write checks to her daughter, who then cashed them to pay for rent.

According to the indictment, Fiore also falsely told the sculptor creating the statue that she had been given discretionary funds by the City of Las Vegas for the project — which was unveiled to the public on Jan. 31, 2020.

“She is an elected official,” Askar said. “It is her job to safeguard the public trust. Instead, she abused it through her actions. She stole from charitable donors.”

Sanft, Fiore’s lawyer, argued in court that prosecutors had not done enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Fiore had intended to defraud donors — and accused the FBI, which carried out a search warrant of Fiore’s home in 2021, of “spinning” the evidence to mislead the jury.

“When you look for one thing only, you can miss everything else,” Sanft said, arguing that prosecutors had not shown the jury receipts that tracked where the donations had been spent.

However, after deliberating for less than two hours, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all counts for Fiore, who will remain free until her sentencing next year.

The conviction is the latest scandal to embroil Fiore, who rode the tea party wave in 2010 to become one of the nation’s most colorful and controversial political figures. After a failed bid for Congress that year, Fiore in 2012 won a seat in the state Assembly — where she was the only Republican to vote for legalizing marijuana and lifting the Nevada’s ban on same-sex marriage. She also sponsored an unsuccessful attempt to allow college students to carry concealed weapons on campus.

Fiore also received national attention in 2016 for helping negotiate a resolution to a standoff between the FBI and anti-government occupiers in Oregon.

But Fiore has also made headlines for her brash style of outrage politics. A staunch supporter of the right to bear arms, she has posed in racy wall calendars with an assortment of semiautomatic rifles. Her Christmas card in 2016 — which showed multiple generations of her family carrying weapons — soon became a lightning rod for controversy. Fiore has also publicly said she is “not okay with Syrian refugees” and has offered to “shoot ’em in the head myself,” before later backtracking.

From 2017 to 2022, she served on the Las Vegas City Council. In her last year in that position, she was sued by a fellow council member, who accused Fiore of breaking her finger in a physical fight at City Hall. The case is still ongoing in court.

In 2021, Fiore announced her bid for the governorship with a contentious campaign ad, but she dropped out of the race before the election. Shortly after, she ran for state treasurer. And though Fiore ultimately lost that 2022 race as well, she was unanimously appointed justice of the peace in Nye County, Nev., that same year — despite not having a law degree at the time.

Following her indictment in July, Fiore’s judgeship was suspended by the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline.

The Israeli military said on October 8 that it had killed another senior Hezbollah commander, a day after marking the somber anniversary of a Hamas attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people.

Suhail Husseini, who was responsible for overseeing the logistics, budget, and management of Hezbollah, an armed group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon, was killed in a targeted attack on October 7, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

“Husseini played a crucial role in weapon transfers between Iran and Hezbollah,” the statement said, adding that he was also in charge of distributing advanced weapons to the group’s members and for its “most sensitive projects” that included operations against Israel.

The IDF said Husseini was also a member of the Jihad Council, the supreme military body of Hezbollah, which is considered a terrorist group by the United States, although the EU has only blacklisted its armed wing.

There was no immediate confirmation from Hezbollah.

The Israeli announcement came after Palestinian militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets on October 7 into Israel, where President Isaac Herzog led a national moment of silence to mark the start of last year’s Hamas attack, which started at Kibbutz Reim in the south of the country.

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union.

In Washington, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris condemned Hamas on the anniversary, while also stating again the U.S. administration’s commitment to reaching cease-fire agreements to end fighting in both Gaza and Lebanon.

“On this solemn anniversary, let us bear witness to the unspeakable brutality of the October 7 attacks but also to the beauty of the lives that were stolen that day,” Biden said in a statement.

In Jerusalem, relatives of the some 100 hostages still in Hamas captivity out of a total of 250, gathered outside the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and stood in silence as a siren wailed in a gesture of protest against what relatives say is the failure of the government to secure their loved ones’ release.

The conflict in Gaza is still raging while Israel is now fighting on a second front in southern Lebanon against Hezbollah.

Following the October 7 attack, Israel launched a military assault on Gaza that has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas. Some 90 percent of the population of Gaza has been displaced and large areas have been destroyed by Israeli bombardments.

The Israeli military said on October 7 that over the past year it has bombed more than 40,000 targets in Gaza, found 4,700 tunnel shafts and destroyed 1,000 rocket launcher sites.

Israel in recent weeks has been carrying out air strikes across Lebanon, including Beirut, and has staged a ground invasion into south Lebanon in its drive to wipe out Hezbollah’s capabilities and leadership.

Israel has killed Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and possibly his potential successor, Hashem Safieddine.

On October 6, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters that Ismail Qaani, commander of the Quds Force — the overseas arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — had also not been heard from in recent days since traveling to Lebanon.

The Israeli campaign on Hezbollah prompted Iran to respond by attacking the Jewish state with a large wave of rockets that were largely shot down by Israeli air defenses without causing substantial damage, but the attack renewed fears of a larger regional conflict.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on October 6 threatened Iran that it might eventually find itself looking like Beirut or Gaza — which has also been battered over the past year — if Tehran attempts to further harm Israel.

Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer who was jailed in the United States and then swapped two years ago for the U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, is back in international arms trade, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Citing an unnamed European security source and other anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the WSJ wrote that Bout, dubbed “the merchant of death” is trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.

“When Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to negotiate the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, they encountered a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout,” the newspaper reported, citing its sources.

The potential arms transfers are yet to be delivered, the WSJ reported. They stop well short of the sale of Russian anti-ship or anti-air missiles that could pose a significant threat to the U.S. military’s efforts to protect international shipping from the Houthis’ attacks, it added.

The WSJ reported that Steve Zissou, a New York attorney who represented Bout in the U.S., had declined to discuss whether his client had met with the Houthis, and that a Houthi spokesman declined to comment.

After returning to Russia following the prisoner swap in December 2022, the 57-year-old Bout joined the Kremlin-loyal ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), but has kept a relatively low public profile since.

Bout was one of the world’s most wanted men prior to his 2008 arrest in Thailand on multiple charges related to arms trafficking. He was extradited to the U.S. and in 2012 was convicted and sentenced by a court in Manhattan to 25 years in prison.

For almost two decades, Bout was one of the world’s most notorious arms dealer, selling weaponry to rogue states, rebel groups and murderous warlords in Africa, Asia and South America.

His notoriety was such that his life helped inspire a Hollywood film, 2005’s Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer loosely based on Bout.

A son of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden has been deported from France, where he lived for years painting landscapes in a Normandy village and barred from returning after posting comments on social media deemed to have glorified terrorism.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he had signed an order banning Omar Binladin from France and that Binladin had previously been deported.

Administrative ban

He gave no details about the timing of the deportation or where Binladin had been sent.

“Mr Binladin, who has lived in the Orne region for several years as the spouse of a British national, posted comments on his social networks in 2023 that glorified terrorism,” Retailleau said on X.

“The administrative ban ensures that Mr Binladin cannot return to France for any reason whatsoever.”

American Water Works — a supplier of drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people — on Monday said hackers had breached its computer networks and systems, prompting it to pause billing to customers.

The Camden, New Jersey-based utility became aware of the unauthorized activity on Thursday, and took protective steps, including shutting down certain systems, American Water Works stated in a regulatory filing.

The company does not believe its facilities or operations were impacted by the cybersecurity incident, but is “currently unable to predict the full impact,” it stated.

“In an effort to protect our customers’ data and to prevent any further harm to our environment, we disconnected or deactivated certain systems. There will be no late charges for customers while these systems are unavailable,” an American Water spokesperson told CBS News in an email.

The company is “working around the clock to investigate the nature and scope of the incident,” the spokesperson added.

The company said it has notified law enforcement and is cooperating with with them.

According to its website, American Water is the largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the U.S., and provides drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people in 14 states and on 18 military installations. It manages more than 500 water and wastewater systems in about 1,700 communities in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Shares of the company lost $5.58, or 3.9%, to close at $136.99, leaving it a market capitalization of $26.69 billion.

U.S. officials have recently become concerned about alleged work by Chinese intelligence officers to breach critical U.S. infrastructure networks such as water-treatment facilities, and tied a cyberattack targeting U.S. broadband providers to the government in Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported late Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

H​urricane Milton is continuing to intensify, with sustained winds now up to 180 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 pm update, making Milton the ninth Atlantic hurricane on record with winds of at least 180 mph.

Hurricane and storm surge warnings are now posted along Florida’s western Gulf Coast, where the storm poses threats of life-threatening storm surge, destructive winds and flooding rainfall by midweek.

“​If Milton stays on its course this will be the most powerful hurricane to hit Tampa Bay in over 100 years. No one in the area has ever experienced a hurricane this strong before,” warned the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay.

I​f you are in an area prone to storm surge, follow the advice of local officials and evacuate if ordered to do so. This is a serious situation with the National Hurricane Center forecasting a storm surge as much as 10 to 15 feet above ground level along the western Florida Gulf Coast, including the Tampa Bay area, if the peak surge arrives at high tide.

H​ere’s where hurricane and storm surge alerts are in effect: A hurricane warning is in effect along much of the western Gulf Coast of Florida from Bonita Beach northward to the mouth of the Suwannee River, including Tampa Bay. This means hurricane (sustained winds of 74 mph or higher) conditions are possible within the warning area, generally within 36 hours.

T​ropical storm watches extend north and south of the hurricane watch into Florida’s Big Bend and along the southwest Florida coast. Mexico’s northern Yucatan Peninsula is also under hurricane and tropical storm alerts.

A storm surge warning stretches from Flamingo northward to the Suwannee River, including Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay. This means a life-threatening water rise from storm surge is possible in the area, generally within 36 hours.

H​ere’s the latest status on Milton: The hurricane is churning over the western Gulf of Mexico 675 miles southwest of Tampa. It’s a strong Category 5 hurricane with 180 mph winds and is tracking east at 10 mph.

M​ilton more than doubled the criteria for rapid intensification, and the National Hurricane Center has called its intensification “explosive”. Its winds increased from 65 mph at 10 a.m. CDT on Sunday to 160 mph at 11 a.m. CDT Monday. That 95 mph wind increase in just over 24 hours is among the extreme bouts of rapid intensification ever observed in the Atlantic Basin.

H​ere’s the latest timing and intensity forecast: Milton may continue strengthening some and could remain at Category 5 strength for a time into Tuesday over the Gulf of Mexico.

T​he forecast calls for Milton to undergo some weakening on approach to Florida because of increasing wind shear and dry air, but it should remain a major hurricane through landfall sometime later Wednesday into early Thursday.

It’s important to note that this possible weakening won’t reduce the impacts we see from Milton, including a serious storm surge. Milton could also grow larger on approach to Florida, allowing its wind, storm surge and rainfall impacts to sprawl out across a bigger area.

I​mpacts Forecast

S​torm Surge

The latest National Hurricane Center forecast calls for storm surge to be as much as 10 to 15 feet above ground level if the peak surge coincides with high tide along the west-central Florida Gulf Coast, including Tampa Bay. Storm surge could be as much as 6 to 10 feet as far south as Fort Myers Beach and in areas north of Tampa Bay.

I​f the upper end of the storm surge forecast materializes for the Tampa Bay area, it would be the highest there in more than a century.

However, expect adjustments to the storm surge forecast shown below based on future track updates for Milton.

Storm surge will be most destructive near and to the south of where the storm’s center crosses the coast. As mentioned earlier, if you are in an area prone to storm surge, you should follow the advice of local officials and evacuate if ordered.

S​torm surge should start building up on Wednesday before likely peaking Wednesday night into early Thursday.

L​ow tide on much of the west coast of Florida is Wednesday afternoon and high tide is Thursday morning.

Rainfall Flooding

R​ainfall has been soaking Florida since the weekend because of a front draped across the state. Flood watches are posted across much of the Florida Peninsula because of this rain preceding Milton’s arrival and rainfall from the hurricane itself by midweek.

T​otals across the Florida Peninsula could be 5 to 10 inches, with locally up to 15 inches through Thursday. This could lead to considerable flash flooding and river flooding.

Wind Damage

T​his system has the potential to bring damaging winds to the western Florida Gulf Coast beginning Wednesday. The strongest winds capable of structural damage, downing trees and knocking out power will occur near where the center of Milton crosses the coast and then tracks inland through central Florida. Power outages may last for days in these areas.

Areas farther away from the landfall point in the Florida Peninsula will see some strong wind gusts as well that could at least down trees and cause scattered power outages.

A​ny hurricane preparations or recovery and rebuilding efforts should be finished by Tuesday evening. After that time, those efforts could be dangerous.

B​elow is a look at the peak wind threat based on the current track of Milton. Note that this forecast could shift in future updates.

T​ornadoes

A​n isolated tornado threat may develop in much of west-central and southern Florida by Tuesday night. The threat of a few tornadoes will then continue Wednesday and Wednesday night in the central and southern Florida Peninsula.

Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO and the owner of X, formerly Twitter, has now started a new political action committee (PAC), called America PAC, he announced Saturday in a post on X. The purpose of the PAC is to endorse candidates aligned with his values, which include secure borders, sensible government spending and free speech, according to The Epoch Times.

This was announced on the same day he joined former President Trump at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the same location where a would-be assassin attempted to kill Trump on July 13.

America PAC’s mission statement, posted on social media, outlines its focus areas, according to The Epoch Times: “secure borders, safe cities, a fair justice system, self-protection, and free speech,” all issues that it says are those “that impact Americans’ daily lives and that voters care about them deeply.”

“America PAC was created to support these key values & leaders who fight for them,” the group wrote.

Regarding illegal immigration, they point to a large increase in illegal border crossings in recent years. “The illegal immigrant population in Pennsylvania has increased 241 [percent] and cost taxpayers over $1.64 billion under the Biden/Harris Administration,” the PAC wrote in a post on X. “This is not putting America First.”

The PAC endorsed Trump as the only presidential candidate capable of addressing their priorities. “There is only one candidate in this race who is on the right side of these issues: Donald J. Trump,” America PAC wrote in a post.

At the rally in Butler on Saturday, Musk said that “President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution,” adding that “He must win to preserve democracy in America.”

Trump said during his introduction that Musk “saved free speech” by purchasing the social media platform, X, and making it a platform for free speech.

“This one request,” Musk said. “It’s very important. Register to vote and get everyone you know and everyone you don’t know — drag them to register to vote.”

Thousands of lives were forever altered and upended when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, butchering more than 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 others.

Those hostages whom Hamas abducted and dragged to Gaza as human shields and bargaining chips quickly became a rallying cry.

Israelis and supporters of Israel around the world plastered their images on posters so no one could forget their names and faces.

Now, a year since the war in Gaza began, 97 hostages are still being held by Hamas.

Sixty-four hostages are still believed to be alive; 33 are confirmed to be dead — and their remains held by the terrorists.

Those in captivity include parents and grandparents, sons and daughters, teachers, farmers, students, young soldiers and even those who advocated for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Among them are also seven Americans, three of whom have been killed.

These are all the 97 hostages who are still being held in Gaza after they were dragged out of Israel by Hamas terrorists.

Note: One hostage, Sathian Suwannakham of Thailand, is not pictured.