Cook’s potential exit hands Trump greater sway over Fed board shaping US monetary policy
While it is still uncertain whether President Donald Trump‘s dismissal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who is preparing a legal challenge, will succeed, her potential departure gives him another chance to install a nominee more attuned to his monetary priorities. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors, commonly known as the Fed board, is composed of seven members, or governors, who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. TRUMP SAYS HE’S ‘ALWAYS’ READY FOR LEGAL FIGHT AS OUSTED FED GOVERNOR PLANS LAWSUIT If Trump replaces Cook, he would have named the majority of the Fed’s governors, strengthening his influence over the panel that guides U.S. monetary policy. Former President Joe Biden appointed Philip Jefferson, Michael Barr and Cook to the Fed board in 2022. Trump’s picks include Michelle Bowman in 2018, Christopher Waller in 2020 and Stephen Miran in 2025. Former President Barack Obama nominated Jerome Powell to the Fed board in 2012, Trump nominated Powell to his current role as chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2017, and Biden reappointed him in 2022. TRUMP NAMES REPLACEMENT FOR FED SEAT; STILL LOOKING FOR PERMANENT APPOINTEE When asked about replacing Cook, Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he has some “very good people for that position.” “We’ll have a majority very shortly,” Trump said. “So that’ll be great.” Tensions between Trump and the Federal Reserve over monetary policy have intensified in recent months. Trump has placed the blame squarely on Powell for not lowering the federal funds target rate, which he says could save the nation “hundreds of billions of dollars.” Meanwhile, Powell has kept the central bank’s key borrowing rate target within a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, maintaining a measured, wait-and-see approach as officials gauge the economic effects of Trump’s tariffs. A LOOK AT THE UNFOLDING BATTLE BETWEEN TRUMP AND POWELL OVER FED POLICY Cook’s ascension marked a historic first, as she became the first Black woman to serve as a governor on the Fed board. Now, her potential removal from that same role could mark another historic first. As it stands, Trump says Cook is fired, effective immediately. But Cook and her lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argue that Trump has no legal authority to remove her. Her term on the Fed board runs until January 2038. The Federal Reserve acknowledged Cook’s potential legal action and said in a Tuesday statement that the U.S. central bank will “abide by any court decision.” “Lisa Cook has indicated through her personal attorney that she will promptly challenge this action in court and seek a judicial decision that would confirm her ability to continue to fulfill her responsibilities as a Senate-confirmed member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,” a Federal Reserve spokesperson wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Apple expected to roll out texting update that would hit GOP hardest ahead of midterms, fundraisers say
An iPhone update coming in September is raising alarms among Republicans who say it will disproportionately block conservative fundraising and voter outreach efforts, echoing past Big Tech controversies that targeted GOP voters. “It’s no surprise that Big Tech wants to stop Donald Trump and other Republicans from communicating with people, because they’ve tried every other method to interfere already,” Sean Dollman, founding partner of American Made Media Company, the parent company of Launchpad Strategies, which was the exclusive digital firm for Trump 2024, told Fox News Digital. “Big Tech has suppressed him, suspended him, and banned him outright. And now they’re trying to make it so he can’t text anybody either. But MAGA won’t be stopped, and MAGA will always find a way.” Apple is expected to roll out its latest update, iOS 26, in September, which will include an updated text filtration system that siphons text messages from unknown numbers that have no chat history with the recipient to a separate message folder that will not generate an alert to the recipient, leaders from American Made Media Company and Launchpad explained to Fox News Digital of the upcoming update. Text messages from known numbers saved on an individual’s phone are expected to continue alerting recipients and sending the messages to their typical text app. GOOGLE’S GMAIL CENSORSHIP COST GOP CANDIDATES $2B SINCE 2019, REPUBLICANS SAY, CITING NEW STUDY Launchpad Strategies served as the Trump 2024 campaign’s exclusive digital firm handling online advertising and consulting during Trump’s decisive victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris, and continues operating as a “full-service Republican digital agency dedicated to helping campaigns win,” according to its website. Launchpad raised $509 million for the Trump campaign in 2024 and an additional $18 million in funds from 40 other clients during the massive 2024 election year, Fox Digital learned. JASON CHAFFETZ: TEN SNEAKY WAYS THE DEEP STATE STEALS YOUR DATA AND HOW TRUMP CAN HELP YOU STOP IT The update could affect election cycles themselves, as text messages concerning voter registration and campaign rallies are expected to also be punted to this new folder, according to fundraisers. Data from the 2024 election cycle showed Republicans leveraged text campaigns two-to-one compared to Democrats, putting them directly in the line of fire when the expected update takes effect in September — ahead of the midterms hitting a fever pitch as Democrats look to flip the House and Senate from Republican control. The text filtration’s scope is expected to extend far beyond just politics, including potentially siphoning texts concerning real-life issues such as doctor appointments from a number not saved in a person’s phone. The National Republican Senate Committee, which serves as the Senate Republican’s campaigning arm, circulated an internal memo in July sounding the alarm that the iOS update could cost Republicans more than $25 million in revenue, Punchbowl News reported at the time. Apple filtering texts from unknown numbers is not new, with such a program already used within the current iOS 18 systems. The current filtration system is by default not activated until a user toggles a button within the “settings” app. The iOS 26 update is also currently available to the public for beta testing, the outlet Fast Company reported in July. Under the new update, the filtration system will be renamed to “Screen Unknown Senders,” but will use ongoing criteria to kick text messages to another folder, specifically: if the iPhone owner does not have a contact saved in their phone and if the user has never interacted with the unknown phone number trying to contact them, according to Fast Company. The visibility of texts from unknown senders will get a facelift under the new update, with the filtered messages from unknown senders made more easily seen by users with a new filtration button at the top of Apple’s Messages app that will display a blue badge noting how many unread texts an iPhone user has received from unknown numbers, according to the Fast Company report, which sought to quell Republican fundraising concerns over the update. Fox News Digital reached out to Apple for comment Monday. History repeating itself is of top concern to Republican fundraisers, who pointed to a seemingly similar filtration system with Gmail messages that first hit the public’s radar in 2022. Studies at the time found Gmail allowed the vast majority of emails from left-wing politicians to land in a user’s inbox, while more than two-thirds of messages from conservative candidates were marked as spam, according to data from North Carolina State University’s Department of Computer Science that was previously reported by Fox News Digital. The Gmail filtration system resulted in a $2 billion loss for Republican candidates between 2019 and 2022, Fox News Digital reported in April 2022, citing research from the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senate Committee. “Big Tech has been silencing conservative voices and actively working against Republicans for multiple cycles. Google’s e-mail suppression – which affects the GOP’s fundraising and GOTV efforts – is another egregious example. Silicon Valley oligarchs are suppressing free political speech,” then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, then-NRSC Chairman Senator Rick Scott and then-NRCC Chairman Congressman Tom Emmer said in a joint statement back in 2022, Fox News Digital reported at the time. GOOGLE’S GMAIL FAVORS LEFT-WING CANDIDATES, SENDS FAR MORE EMAILS FROM CONSERVATIVES TO SPAM: STUDY The research found that between 2019 and 2020, conservative candidates raised $737 million on Republican fundraising platform WinRed from Gmail. The data found that just 32% of fundraising emails actually reached recipients, with Republicans estimating they missed out on $1.5 billion in contributions during the 2020 election cycle alone. The update comes as the Democratic Party is in turmoil following the 2024 race, which saw former President Joe Biden drop out of the election cycle with just more than 100 days to go before passing the proverbial mantle to Harris before the loss to Trump. The party has since attempted to find its political footing after an exodus of the
NAACP accuses Texas of ‘racially motivated’ redistricting move in new lawsuit
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is suing Texas over its redistricting plan that would eliminate five Democratic congressional seats. The NAACP filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, arguing the new congressional map “was enacted with an impermissible and controlling discriminatory purpose on the basis of race.” It names Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson as plaintiffs. “It’s quite obvious that Texas’s effort to redistrict mid-decade, before next year’s midterm elections, is racially motivated. The state’s intent here is to reduce the members of Congress who represent Black communities, and that, in and of itself, is unconstitutional,” NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement Tuesday. Meanwhile, the NAACP said it is also encouraging blue states to enact their own redistricting plans in an effort to offset the effects of the new Texas map. NEWSOM SIGNS CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING BILLS, COUNTERING TRUMP-BACKED PUSH IN TEXAS “At this time, the NAACP is urging California, New York, and all other states to act immediately by redistricting and passing new, lawful, and constitutional electoral maps,” the group wrote Tuesday. “We must counter Texas’ unconstitutional move and ensure that if all else fails, Black Americans still have a voice in Congress.” Texas passed its new map on Saturday, pulling off the political victory despite weeks of Democrats breaking quorum, which included fleeing the state to avoid a redistricting vote. ABBOTT SCORES BIG WIN IN REDISTRICTING BATTLE AS TEXAS DEMOCRATS’ BLOCKADE COLLAPSES The Republican-controlled state Senate passed the redistricting map on Friday, just two days after clearing the GOP-held House by an 88-52 vote. The move has kicked off a redistricting battle nationwide, however. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Democrats passed their own new map on Thursday, which creates five new districts that lean Democratic, jeopardizing the seats of Republicans. That map will first face a Nov. 4 statewide vote before being adopted, however. That special election is expected to cost taxpayers some $230 million. Newsom’s office has responded to criticism around the cost by arguing, “There’s no price tag for democracy.” Fox News’ Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.
Transgender policies put Virginia Dems on defense as GOP contenders back families: ‘Somebody has to stand up’
Republican candidates for statewide office in Virginia are siding with parents who are upset over school transgender bathroom polices, while their Democratic rivals stay largely silent. Fox News Digital reached out to the 2025 candidates for Virginia governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general to ask about their views on transgender students’ access to bathrooms. Candidates in the Democratic Party either failed to respond to Fox News Digital’s repeated inquiries about the matter, or avoided speaking directly about it, despite the issue garnering national headlines this month. “Biological differences matter,” GOP Virginia gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears told Fox News Digital when reached for comment about the controversial issue. “It is not political. It’s common sense, and somebody has to stand up and speak for parents.” VIRGINIA LEADERS REBUKE RACIST SIGN TARGETING GOP GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE WINSOME EARLE-SEARS: ‘REPULSIVE’ The inquiries came after five Virginia school districts were designated “high-risk” by the Department of Education earlier this month over their decision to continue letting students use facilities based on their gender identity. They also followed this month’s suspension of two high school-aged males who were accused of sexual harassment after they complained about a transgender-identifying biological female using their locker room. “As a mom of three daughters in Virginia public schools, a former federal law enforcement officer, and a candidate for governor, Abigail’s priority is ensuring that all of Virginia’s kids are safe and supported,” said a representative for former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, who is running for governor against Earle-Sears, when reached for comment about the issue. VIRGINIA LT. GOVERNOR ON WHY HER STATE IS AT RISK OF LOSING FEDERAL FUNDING OVER TRANSGENDER BATHROOMS “While Abigail’s opponent, Winsome Earle-Sears, stokes division and backs the Trump administration’s threats to strip funding from Virginia schools, as Virginia’s next governor, Abigail will work to protect public school funding, address the Commonwealth’s chronic teacher shortage, and contend with our last-in-the-nation math recovery ranking,” the spokesperson continued. Spanberger’s spokesperson also slammed Earle-Sears’ “decades-long record of trying to defund Virginia’s public schools” and argued that she has “offered no plan to increase student achievement.” “Abigail will continue to focus on preparing students for success and bringing Virginia parents to the table,” the spokesperson concluded in their response. “What’s [the] deadline to get you something on the Trump admin threatening to pull funding from those five Northern Virginia school divisions?” The other Democrats running for the state’s top office, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, who is running to be lieutenant governor, and Jay Jones, an attorney running to replace Jason Miyares as Virginia’s attorney general, did not respond to Fox News Digital’s repeated requests for comment on the topic. In 2021, Democratic candidate for governor Terry McAuliffe said during a debate that parents should not be telling schools what to teach their children, a statement that many claimed was a contributing factor to his loss to GOP Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. “It should be noted that this is a common sense issue. This is an 80/20 issue. At least 80% of people think that this is just a matter of common sense,” said Josh Hetzler, the attorney representing the families of the two Virginia boys who were disciplined for complaining about a biological female using their locker room. “For time immemorial, we’ve had boys and boys locker rooms and girls and girls locker rooms.” Meanwhile, Earle-Sears’ running mate, GOP candidate for lieutenant governor John Reid, was also quick to respond to the issue. “Students shouldn’t be punished for speaking up about fairness and safety in their own locker room,” Reid responded when asked about the boy’s suspension. “This is what happens when unchecked ideology overrides common sense—kids get silenced instead of protected.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Additionally, incumbent GOP Attorney General Jason Miyares called out the Virginia school district which disciplined the two boys, for “weaponizing Title IX to punish male students expressing discomfort at being forced to share a locker room with a female student.” His opponent, attorney Jay Jones, did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the matter. As a result of the Department of Education’s designation of five Northern Virginia school districts as “high risk,” their funding will now be subject to “reimbursement status,” meaning the districts will now have to pay all expenses “up front” and then subsequently request reimbursements from the federal government. “States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
Family member of infants burned alive by cartel thanks Trump for crackdown: ‘Hopeful for the first time’
A woman whose sister, nieces and nephews were gunned down and burned alive by the Juarez cartel is now speaking out in support of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on cartel violence, saying she is “very hopeful for the first time in a long time.” Speaking with Fox News Digital, Adriana Jones, president of American Families Against Cartel Terrorism, shared the story of how her sister, Maria “Rhonita” LeBaron, and nieces and nephews, Howie, 12, Krystal, 10, and 8-month-old twins Titus and Tiana, were killed by Mexican cartel members in November 2019. Jones said the family had been driving to Phoenix and was just 70 miles south of Mexico’s border with Arizona. “Gunmen opened fire on their vehicle, killing everybody in it, and then lit it on fire when they were gunned down. So, they were burned, most likely still alive,” she explained. “There were two other vehicles that had been driving along that same route, family members, that two other mothers were murdered along with two more children, and there were seven surviving children, all gunned down, all American citizens, all right there along the border.” ‘LIVING LABORATORY’: TRUMP ADMIN URGED TO LOOK TO SOUTH AMERICA FOR LESSONS ON FIGHTING MIGRANT GANGS Since then, Jones said her family has been “fighting for justice in every way we can.” Through her advocacy, she said she has found that her family’s tragedy is “not a one-off” and that “all along the border you see this kind of stuff happening every single day,” whether it involves cartel violence, human trafficking or deadly fentanyl trafficking. “No American family should ever have to suffer the way that my family has suffered,” she said. “I held their bodies. I watched what the cartels did to them. I know how evil they are.” “American families are dying every single day because of cartel violence,” she added. “America really needs to know what’s happening.” Until recently, however, Jones said that it felt like fighting “a brick wall.” “There was almost zero movement,” she said. “No matter how much we pushed, no matter how much we traveled, no matter how many doors we knocked on, and finally, in these last few months, you’ve just seen a lot of movement on this issue. People are finally waking up, truly understanding.” After the Trump Department of Justice announced that Sinaloa Cartel boss and former Juarez boss Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada pleaded guilty Monday to leading a criminal enterprise and racketeering, Jones said she finally felt a glimmer of hope in her fight for American families at the border. Jones thanked Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the “entire Trump administration” for holding the cartels accountable. “I wasn’t expecting actually to be as emotional as I was and to be impacted when I watched it live. And I’m going to be honest with you, I felt very, very hopeful for the first time in a long time,” she explained. DOJ CHARGES FIVE ALLEGED MEXICAN CARTEL LEADERS, TOUTS ‘EXTRAORDINARY POLICEWORK’ THAT LED TO INDICTMENTS “Listening to that press conference and just seeing the work that has been done under this administration, I’m honestly so hopeful,” she went on. “I truly believe that cartels can and should be eradicated.” Tearing up, Jones noted, “It was a very, very emotional day for me.” Though the Trump administration has taken heavy criticism for its crackdown on illegal immigration, Jones said, “I feel like the current administration is the first time we’ve seen any real movement on this issue.” “Understanding just how big it is and how many American lives are affected every day, I’m truly hopeful for the first time in a long time that we can actually make a difference and we can actually get those numbers to start trending down and just save American families.” Despite this, Jones said there is still much that needs to be done to put an end to cartel violence against American families. She noted that though the Trump administration has designated eight cartels and criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organizations,” the cartel that killed her family, the Juarez Cartel, and its subgroup known as “La Linea,” have not yet been labeled terrorist groups. TRUMP APPROVES MILITARY ACTION AGAINST LATIN AMERICAN CARTELS CLASSIFIED AS TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS “It is disheartening,” she admitted. “We actually have a judgment in U.S. courts against these cartels that were naming them terrorists in that judgment. So, it seemed like a very easy step to just include them on that list.” “They shot my 12-year-old nephew point-blank, they burned eight-month-old twins. These are terrorists, and they definitely need to be on that list,” she said, adding, “I’m going to keep on knocking on doors until I get those answers.” Jones urged other American families who have been victims of cartel violence to join in her efforts. “Each victim has their own story. Every family has their own heartache. And so, to use that heartache to actually make a difference to help is what we’re looking to do,” she explained. “The world needs to hear your stories. America needs your stories.”
Trump loyalist who pushed false election claims takes on government role
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has installed a right-wing researcher who pushed false claims about the 2020 election to a position in charge of election oversight. As of Tuesday, a leadership chart for the Department of Homeland Security shows Pennsylvania activist Heather Honey serving as the deputy assistant secretary for election integrity in the Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans. Honey’s appointment was first reported by the investigative news outlet Democracy Docket on Monday. Her position has raised eyebrows among critics of the Trump administration due to her involvement in several efforts that resulted in misleading research about the 2020 presidential race. Trump has pushed the false claim that his loss in the 2020 election was the result of massive fraud, and he has consistently refused to admit defeat. Since returning to the White House for a second term in January, he has placed loyalists in positions of power, raising fears about the independence of certain offices. He has also used his false claims of fraudulent elections to place pressure on the country’s electoral system, which is administered largely by state and local officials. Critics have warned that overtly partisan appointments to posts overseeing elections could diminish confidence in the voting process. “What I’m concerned about is that it seems like DHS [Department of Homeland Security] is being poised to use the vast power and megaphone of the federal government to spread disinformation rather than combat it,” David Becker, the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, told The Associated Press news agency. Advertisement “It’s going to really harm DHS’s credibility overall.” Who is Heather Honey? Honey’s appointment in particular has prompted election experts and local officials to speak out, given her prominent role in spreading misinformation about the 2020 election. For instance, Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s secretary of state and a Democrat, told the news outlet ProPublica in a statement that Honey has a “well-documented history of spreading election lies”. Honey leads a consulting firm called Haystack Investigations, which was involved in election “audits”, which experts consider flawed, as well as another organisation called Verity Votes, which also purports to conduct election research. Trump and his supporters have drawn on some of her firms’ conclusions in their efforts to undermine the 2020 election results. In the key swing state of Pennsylvania, for instance, Honey’s group misrepresented incomplete voter data to falsely allege that the state had more votes than voters in 2020. Two years later, in 2022, Verity Vote claimed that Pennsylvania sent mail-in ballots to voters who failed to provide appropriate identification. State officials, however, accused Verity Vote of misrepresenting the “not verified” designation in its voting system. In public statements, the Pennsylvania Department of State explained that it uses the “not verified” tag to signal to local officials that a voter’s identification needs to be verified. The designation is a “security feature” for voter applications, it said – not an indication that voters could submit ballots without proper ID. Trump narrowly lost Pennsylvania in the 2020 election, with Democrat Joe Biden edging him out by less than 1 percent. In Arizona, another critical battleground swing state that Trump lost in 2020, Honey participated in a partisan audit of election results in Maricopa County, a populous area containing the city of Phoenix. Despite searching for fraud for nearly six months, the audit turned up no evidence that the outcome in Biden’s favour was erroneous. Still, experts say that audit was filled with errors and biased methodology. In the years since, former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, told The Associated Press that he had received dozens of public records requests related to elections from Honey. Richer served in the role from 2021 to 2025, and said that such requests occupied “scores of hours of staff time”. He told The Associated Press he was surprised to hear Honey was in a position of such “authority and responsibility” and said that she was “not a serious auditor”. Advertisement Honey is not the first Trump official to face public scrutiny for her role in his administration. Other appointees, like Emil Bove, have faced intense public questions about whether they would prioritise their loyalty to Trump over their commitment to government ethics. Since his victory in the 2024 election, Trump has also opened investigations into critics and officials who probed his false claims about the 2020 election. He has said he will do away with things like mail-in ballots and voting machines, demands shared by others who push anti-election conspiracies on the US right. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,280
Here are the key events on day 1,280 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is how things stand on Wednesday, August 27: Fighting Russian attacks killed one person and injured six in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. One worker was killed and six others were injured in a Russian attack on a Ukrainian mine, according to the energy company DTEK, which said the attack damaged buildings and caused a power outage. “At that time, 146 miners were underground, and their ascent to the surface is ongoing,” the company said. Ukrainian attacks killed one person and injured three others in the Russian-occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, the Moscow-appointed Governor Vladimir Saldo said. Russian forces occupied Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian battlefield monitoring group DeepState has reported. Russian forces also advanced near the Ukrainian settlements of Shevchenko, Bila Hora, and Oleksandr-Shultyno, according to DeepState. Russian air defences shot down 191 Ukrainian drones, six guided aerial bombs, and a long-range guided missile in one day, Russia’s state TASS news agency reports. Ukrainian men aged 18 to 22 are now permitted to cross Ukraine’s borders freely in either direction despite the continuing imposition of martial law, which had previously prevented such movement, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office told the Ukrainska Pravda news site that more than 200,000 cases have been opened into soldiers who were absent without leave (AWOL), including some 50,000 investigated for desertion. Advertisement Peace talks United States President Donald Trump said he is prepared to impose economic sanctions against Russia if its leader, Vladimir Putin, fails to agree to a peace deal in Ukraine: “We want to have an end. We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged governments to work quickly on creating security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia, saying: “We must intensify our work to the maximum and ensure clarity and transparency in everything related to security guarantees”. The US may provide intelligence assets and battlefield oversight to assist Western powers in the provision of security guarantees for post-war Ukraine, as well as take part in a European-led air defence shield for the country, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed European and Ukrainian officials. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and Kyiv’s national security council chief, Rustem Umerov, met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha, where they had a “substantive conversation” on topics including “the details of security guarantees for Ukraine”, Yermak wrote on X. Exxon Mobil and the Russian energy company Rosneft secretly discussed resuming work on the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas producing project, on Russia’s Pacific coast, if Moscow and Washington give their approval as part of a Ukraine peace process, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the secret discussions. Politics and diplomacy Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to veto a bill on aid to Ukrainian refugees in his country could cost Poland’s economy 8 billion zlotys ($2.20bn), in part because thousands of Ukrainians would lose the right to legal employment, Poland’s Ministry of the Interior said. Adblock test (Why?)
US envoy prompts outrage in Lebanon after telling media to ‘act civilised’
Tom Barrack’s remarks to journalists trigger calls for an apology and media boycott. A top US diplomat has triggered outrage and calls for an apology in Lebanon after telling a group of local journalists to “act civilised”. Tom Barrack, the United States ambassador to Turkiye and the special envoy for Syria, made the comments on Tuesday after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut to discuss plans for the disarmament of Hezbollah. Briefing local media after the meeting, Barrack, who is of Lebanese descent, chided reporters for shouting out questions all at once, and appeared to draw a link between their behaviour and conflict in the Middle East. “We’re going to have a different set of rules… please be quiet for a moment,” Barrack said. “And I want to tell you something, the moment this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone. So, you want to know what’s happening? Act civilised, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what is happening in the region.” “In cadence with your kindness, your interest and your thoughtful questions, we’ll give you responses,” Barrack added. “If that’s not how you’d like to operate, we’re gone.” Barrack’s remarks prompted a swift backlash in Lebanon and farther afield, with commentators accusing the diplomat of displaying arrogance and a colonial mentality. The Lebanese Presidency expressed regret over the comments, saying in a statement on X that the government has “full appreciation for all journalists” and “extends to them its highest regards for their efforts and dedication in fulfilling their professional and national duties”. Advertisement The Union of Journalists in Lebanon called on Lebanese and Arab media outlets to boycott future events involving the envoy until he issues a formal public apology. “The union considers Barrack’s comments against journalists not as a mere slip of the tongue or an individual stance, but rather as a reflection of an unacceptable superiority in dealing with the media and an implicit disdain for the essence of journalistic work,” the media union said in a statement. “Furthermore, the content of his remarks reflects ingrained colonial arrogance towards the peoples of the region and constitutes a blatant violation of basic diplomatic etiquette and the values that diplomacy should represent – chief among them respect for press freedom and the people’s right to knowledge.” Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mohamad Hasan Sweidan, a Beirut-based columnist at The Cradle, said Barrack’s comments reflected Washington’s attitude towards the region. “Today, Tom Barrack is reminding us how they view people of the region by defining their actions as animalistic,” Sweidan said. The US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Adblock test (Why?)
New turn in Greater Noida dowry murder case, Nikki Bhati’s funeral video contradicts her family’s claims
Hours after the funeral, Nikki’s family registered a police case accusing her husband Vipin, brother-in-law Rohit, and their parents of murdering her by setting her on fire. All four of them have since been arrested by the police. Read on to know more.
Himachal: Massive destruction due to heavy rains in Kullu, NH-3 damaged, Beas river swells, authorities issue advisories
Continuous rainfall in Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu district has swollen rivers, damaged roads and disrupted connectivity along the Chandigarh-Manali National Highway (NH-3). A portion of the highway was washed away by the Beas River. Manali was the worst-hit subdivision.