President Donald Trump is often at his most frank when he plays pundit, and so it went with his recent musings about Israel’s war with Hamas and the political fallout.
“They had total control over Congress, and now they don’t,” Trump told the Daily Caller in an interview published earlier this month, referring to Israel. “They’re gonna have to get that war over with. … They may be winning the war, but they’re not winning the world of public relations, you know, and it is hurting them.”
Trump’s not wrong about Israel’s increasingly tattered international reputation. In just the last few days, Canada, the U.K. and Australia became the newest countries to recognize the state of Palestine. The U.S.-Israel relationship is also facing more scrutiny than ever before, with a rising number of lawmakers who once jostled to portray themselves as staunchly pro-Israel growing deeply critical. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest moves to launch a ground offensive in Gaza City, target Hamas leaders in Doha and deny evidence of widespread famine in the besieged strip are only further fueling the uproar.
An Entire Generation of Americans Is Turning on Israel
Judge excoriates Trump in blistering decision calling efforts to deport pro-Palestinian academics illegal
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration’s effort to deport pro-Palestinian academics is a deliberate attack on free speech meant to “strike fear” into non-citizen students and chill campus protests.
“The effect of these targeted deportation proceedings continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day,” U.S. District Judge William Young concluded, in a scathing, 161-page opinion that he described as tYoung, a Reagan appointee based in Boston, did not immediately order changes to administration policies, but said he will hold further proceedings on how to rein in the practices he found to violate First Amendment free-speech rights.
The ruling is the long-awaited result of a lawsuit brought by university professors who say the Trump administration is illegally chilling free speech by targeting prominent pro-Palestinian campus activists — like Mahmoud Khalil — and others who have expressed pro-Palestinian views. It followed a two week trial that featured testimony from top Trump administration officials, who described orchestrating the arrests of these activists and taking cues from an anonymously run website.
Watch Pete Hegseth criticize 'fat generals' at military summit in Quantico
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slammed what he called "fat generals" and diversity initiatives, crediting them for decades of decay in the armed forces at a rare meeting with hundreds of top military commanders in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, told the attending commanders he would crack down on physical fitness and grooming standards, as well as disposing of "woke" policies. The defense secretary and his boss, President Donald Trump, told attendees they have the option to resign if they don't support the agenda.
"It's unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and leading all around the world," Hegseth said during his speech. "It's a bad look, and it's not who we are!"
TVNL Comment: How about a mental acuity test twice a year for those at the very top?
DACA has bipartisan support in Congress. Still, Republicans are following Trump's lead
Congressional Republicans are waiting on President Trump to signal he is ready to negotiate a permanent solution for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.
Over the last decade, DACA has received varying degrees of support from Republican lawmakers. The program, created in 2012 to protect children who arrived in the country illegally prior to 2007 from deportation, now benefits around half a million people. During the last few months, there have been reports of DACA recipients without criminal records being detained by federal immigration officials despite the protection the program offers from immigration enforcement.
As Trump expands the reach of his mass deportation effort bolstered by record funding from Congress, immigration advocates and Democrats are raising concern that those on DACA may get caught in the crosshairs. Nearly 20 DACA recipients have been detained by immigration officials this year, according to the immigrant rights group Home is Here. But Republican lawmakers open to a solution are still deferring to the executive branch to broker a deal.
AP and Reuters demand answers from Israel over attack that killed journalists
Two major news agencies demanded that Israel explain what happened during a strike on a hospital in Gaza last month that killed five journalists, calling for concrete actions and accountability to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Reuters and The Associated Press — through their top editors, Alessandra Galloni and Julie Pace — urged the Israeli government to “explain the deaths of these journalists and to take every step to protect those who continue to cover this conflict.” Their statement came on the one-month anniversary of the strike.
Killed in the strikes were five journalists, including visual journalist Mariam Dagga, who worked for AP and other news organizations; Reuters cameraman Hussam al-Masri; and Moaz Abu Taha, a freelance journalist whose work had been published by Reuters. Seventeen others were killed in the strike.
“We renew our demand for a clear account from the Israeli authorities and urge the government to uphold its obligations to ensure press freedom and protection,” the statement from the AP and Reuters said. “We remain devastated and outraged by their deaths.”
The journalists died at the Nasser Hospital, which the agencies pointed out is a location protected under international law and “widely known to be crucial for news coverage out of Gaza.”
Neptune Cruise Missiles Used To Strike Factory In Russia: Ukrainian Navy
“We are adjusting the work of the Russian defense factories,” the Ukrainian Navy stated on Telegram. “At night, our ‘Neptune’ successfully struck the Russian Karachevsky ‘Electrodetal’ plant. Another link in the enemy’s supply chain is down.”
The Karachev Electrodetal Plant “manufactures various electrical connectors for military and general industrial applications, including low-frequency, high-frequency, and combined connectors,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff explained. “The products are used in aerospace, electronics, instrument engineering, and other industries. These include connectors for printed circuit boards, military equipment, aircraft, antennas, base stations, and other systems, as well as components for various measuring instruments.”The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff offered more details about the strike and the target. The attack involved four Neptunes fired from a distance of roughly 240 kilometers (about 150 miles). That would put the launch site about 25 miles across the border in Ukraine.
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YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24 million to settle lawsuit over Jan. 6 suspension
YouTube will pay $24.5 million to President Trump to resolve a 2021 lawsuit that claimed he was the victim of censorship when the site suspended his account following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters, according to federal court papers filed on Monday.
It's the latest settlement reached by a tech company sued by Trump in the wake of the Capitol riots. In January, Meta paid the president $25 million over Facebook's and Instagram's decision to suspend Trump after Jan. 6. Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, paid out $10 million over similar allegations.
The largest event space at the White House now is the East Room, which seats about 200 for dinner. So, for decades, when the White House needed more capacity for a state dinner or other large event, they would take it outdoors, usually putting up large fancy tents, complete with flooring and chandeliers.
Free speech experts have said the trio of suits brought by Trump did not raise credible legal claims, since First Amendment protections typically apply to government officials, not private companies, censoring speech. Yet the tech industry has lined up one by one to make public displays of their eight-digit deals to conclude the litigation.
West Africans deported from US to Ghana ‘dumped without documents in Togo’
West Africans deported by the US to Ghana are now fending for themselves in Togo after being dumped in the country without documents, according to lawyers and deportees.
The latest chapter in Donald Trump’s deportation programme, their saga became public earlier this month when the Ghanaian president, John Mahama, disclosed that his country had struck a deal to accept deportees from the region.
Eight to 10 west African nationals have since been forcibly sent by Ghana to Togo, bypassing a formal border crossing, and then left on the street without passports.
“The situation is terrible,” said Benjamin, a Nigerian national, who said over the weekend he was staying in a hotel room with three other deportees and only one bed, living on money sent from their families in the US.
Portland braces for deployment of 200 national guard troops to city
Portland is bracing for the deployment of 200 national guard troops as Donald Trump moves ahead with plans to bring the US military into another Democratic-run city.
Oregon filed a lawsuit to block the deployment, which the state has warned will escalate tensions and lead to unrest when there is “no need or legal justification” to bring federal troops into Portland.
Trump on Saturday claimed Portland is “war ravaged” and that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facilities there are under attack, but there is no evidence of that and protests outside Ice sites have been small.
It is the latest development in Trump’s years-long fixation on the Pacific north-west city of 635,000 that extended through the president’s first term in the White House. The president has frequently sought to paint the city as out of control and, as he described in September, like “living in hell”.
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