Trump celebrates after UN climate committee moves away from its most extreme global warming scenario
President Donald Trump on Saturday blasted Democratic climate policies after scientists moved away from one of the most extreme global warming scenarios previously used in United Nations-backed climate modeling. “GOOD RIDDANCE! After 15 years of Dumocrats promising that ‘Climate Change’ is going to destroy the Planet, the United Nations TOP Climate Committee just admitted that its own projections (RCP8.5) were WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump accused Democrats of using climate fears to justify energy policies and government spending. “For far too long Climate Activism has been used by Dumocrats to scare Americans, push horrible Energy Polices, and fund BILLIONS into their bogus research programs,” he continued. “Unlike the Dumocrats, who use Climate Alarmism nonsense to push their GREEN NEW SCAM, my Administration will always be based on TRUTH, SCIENCE, and FACT!” DAVID MARCUS: NEW YORK TIMES ANNOUNCES THE END OF THE CLIMATE CHANGE HOAX Trump’s comments came after climate scientists moved away from using the most extreme emissions scenario developed under the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s worst-case scenarios, which included significant global temperature increases and sea level rises, included global crop failures and even potential extinction events on the scale of the dinosaurs. The scenario, known as RCP8.5 and later SSP5-8.5, projected severe global warming outcomes under extremely high emissions assumptions. CONSERVATIVE GROUPS DECLARE 2025 A TIPPING POINT ON ‘CLIMATE HYSTERIA’ AS TRUMP UNLEASHES ENERGY AGENDA According to GB News, the scenario is being phased out after researchers concluded it no longer reflects the most plausible trajectory based on renewable energy growth, emissions trends and climate policies. Researchers writing in the journal Geoscientific Model Development said future climate scenarios should continue to cover a wide range of outcomes, from severe warming to lower-emissions futures. “For the 21st century, this range will be smaller than assessed before: on the high-end of the range, the high emission levels (quantified by SSP5-8.5) have become implausible, based on trends in the costs of renewables, the emergence of climate policy and recent emission trends.” TRUMP OFFICIALS URGED TO BOYCOTT UN CLIMATE SUMMIT AS TRUMP SEETHES CLIMATE CHANGE IS A ‘CON JOB’ Trump’s post follows remarks he made last September at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where he called climate change a “con job.” “It’s the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion,” Trump said at the time. “All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.” “They were made by stupid people that have cost their country’s fortunes and given those same countries no chance for success,” he continued. EPA CHIEF ZELDIN DELIVERS DAGGER TO THE HEART OF OBAMA’S CLIMATE CHANGE AGENDA ON ‘RUTHLESS’ PODCAST Trump’s comments drew criticism from Democrats, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called the remarks “total disinformation.” “You know yesterday at the U.N., President Trump said, ‘Climate change is a hoax,’ because it’s just total disinformation,” Clinton said during the Clinton Global Initiative in New York. “It’s a statement that is just not true, and yet being propagated.” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin later defended Trump’s climate remarks in an interview with Fox News. “The president is absolutely right and we’ve seen it in the name of climate change, these left wing policies willing to cause extreme economic pain for people who can at least afford it,” he said. Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.
Trump scores major Republican primary victory as Cassidy ousted in Louisiana
Five and a half years ago after he voted to convict President Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana was sent packing by Republican voters as he ran for re-election. Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming topped Cassidy in Saturday’s GOP primary, according to The Associated Press. With most results tabulated late in the evening, Letlow stood at 45% of the vote, Fleming at roughly 28% and Cassidy at just under 25%, Since no candidate cracked 50% of the vote, Letlow and Fleming will advance to next month’s runoff for the Republican nomination. And Cassidy becomes the first elected Republican senator to lose renomination since Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana in 2012 While he wasn’t on the ballot, Trump is a winner, as the primary in the solidly red state was the latest test of his endorsements in GOP nomination races and of the president’s immense grip over the Republican Party. DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB Trump on Saturday morning took aim at Cassidy, arguing the senator is “a disloyal disaster” and “a sleazebag, a terrible guy, who is BAD FOR LOUISIANA.” And after Cassidy was defeated, Trump returned to social media to revel in the senator’s ouster, saying “it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!” Cassidy, in a speech to supporters after conceding, said “when you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn’t turn out the way you want it to.” “But you don’t pout, you don’t whine. You don’t claim the election was stolen… You don’t manufacture some excuse,” Cassidy said in an apparent jab at Trump. “You thank the voters for the privilege of representing the state or the country for as long as you’ve had that privilege. And that’s what I’m doing right now.” The Louisiana primary was held a week and a half after Indiana’s primary, where Trump-backed challengers ousted five sitting Republican state senators who last December teamed up with Democrats to defeat the president’s push for congressional redistricting in the GOP-dominated Midwestern state. Letlow, speaking to supporters at her primary night celebration, thanked Trump for his endorsement. “Louisiana made it clear tonight: we are ready for strong conservative leadership that will stand with President Trump and never waver,” she added in a post on X. Letlow was backed by Trump even before she entered the race in January. “Not only did he encourage me to get into this race, but also to have his complete and total endorsement has been, wow, the honor of a lifetime,” Letlow told Fox News Digital on the eve of the primary. Trump’s endorsement in the nomination race weighed heavily in a state he carried by 22 points in his 2024 election victory. “It’s the most powerful endorsement in the world,” Letlow said, adding that Louisiana Republicans “are huge fans of the president.” Letlow was also backed by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana, a top Trump ally. After cruising to re-election six years ago, Cassidy was one of only seven Senate Republicans who voted in early 2021 to convict Trump after he was impeached by the House for his role in the violent Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters who aimed to upend congressional certification of former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Trump was acquitted by the Senate. But since the start of Trump’s second term, Cassidy has been supportive of the president’s agenda and his nominees, including voting to approve Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement were out for revenge. That’s because Cassidy, a doctor, has been a skeptic of Kennedy’s push to reform the nation’s health policies, including Kennedy’s efforts to cut back on vaccine recommendations. And Kennedy allies blamed Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, for helping sink the surgeon general nomination of Casey Means, a close Kennedy ally and top MAHA advocate, after Cassidy did not bring it to a committee vote. Meanwhile, Trump blasted the senator as a “very disloyal person” and on the eve of the primary, the president took to social media to praise Letlow as a “Highly Respected America First Congresswoman.” Cassidy highlighted his record over two terms in the Senate in delivering for Louisiana, which is one of the nation’s poorest states. And he’s showcased his support for Louisiana’s large oil and gas industry, which accounts for roughly 15% of the state’s workforce. “When people ask things such as, can you work with President Trump, I point out that he has signed into law four bills that I wrote or negotiated,” the senator said in a Fox News Digital interview on Friday. “We continue to work together, by the way.” And Cassidy touted that he’s “a conservative senator who delivers.” Cassidy and an allied super PAC dished out more than $20 million on ads, according to AdImpact, a national ad tracking firm. That total was more than Letlow and Fleming, combined, spent. Some of those ads knocked Letlow over her past support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs during her tenure at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Cassidy argued that Republican voters are “concerned about her shifting position on DEI. She was all in for DEI.” Defending her record, Letlow told Fox News Digital that “back in 2020 whenever DEI was introduced to us, we had no idea what it was back then, and I quickly witnessed it. I was in higher education at the time. I quickly witnessed the left completely hijack it, turn it into this Marxist leftist indoctrination of our children. And so, when I got to Congress for the last five years, I’ve been fighting against it. Letlow also faced scrutiny from her rivals over her failure to disclose over 200 personal stock and bond trades within the mandated 45-day reporting deadline for members of Congress. She said it “was a reporting error on my financial
Maduro’s alleged ‘bag man’ Alex Saab arrested less than 3 years after Biden pardon: report
Alex Saab, a 54-year-old Colombian businessman and close ally of captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, was reportedly deported after his February arrest in a joint U.S.-Venezuelan operation. The development comes less than three years after former President Joe Biden pardoned and released Saab in a controversial 2023 prisoner swap. The high-profile arrest highlights a new level of cooperation between U.S. authorities and Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez. MADURO ALLY ALEX SAAB ARRESTED IN JOINT US-VENEZUELAN OPERATION, OFFICIAL SAYS Following Maduro’s capture in a January U.S. military raid, Rodríguez stripped Saab of his cabinet position and his role as the main conduit for foreign investments, according to a report from The Associated Press. If returned to U.S. custody, Saab could become a crucial star witness against Maduro, who is currently awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan. Court hearings previously revealed that Saab held secret meetings with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for years, helping them identify corruption within Maduro’s camp. VENEZUELA ORDERS NATIONWIDE MANHUNT FOR SUPPORTERS AFTER MADURO’S ARREST BY US FORCES Described by U.S. officials as Maduro’s “bag man,” Saab was previously detained in 2020 on bribery charges, with U.S. officials alleging he siphoned $350 million out of Venezuela, according to the AP. While Biden’s 2023 pardon was focused on a specific 2019 indictment over unbuilt low-income housing, Saab still faces active federal investigations over alleged bribery conspiracies involving Venezuelan food import contracts. The Venezuelan immigration authority confirmed a “Colombian citizen” was being sent away due to U.S. criminal investigations, but avoided confirmation of his destination to bypass Venezuelan laws prohibiting the extradition of its own nationals, the AP reported. The U.S. Department of Justice and Saab’s lawyer, Neil Schuster, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Trump shares stunning photos of Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, says project is ahead of schedule
President Donald Trump on Saturday shared photos of a sample test at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which is undergoing renovations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary and expected to be completed by July Fourth. The images showed the basin with the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument in the background at each end. Blue skies and white fluffy clouds could be seen in the water’s reflection. “Looking really good! Should be completed before the Fourth of July, our target date,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Saturday afternoon. TRUMP WORKING TO CLEAN ‘FILTHY’ LINCOLN MEMORIAL REFLECTING POOL, BLAMES BIDEN FOR MAINTENANCE DELAYS Trump added the administration has “substantially upgraded construction materials, including surface qualities, sandblasting granite, and exterior stone and walkways.” “I’ve made this a much larger job than originally contemplated for purposes of Beauty, and a much longer life,” Trump wrote in the post. “Also, went to a higher quality sealer with more reflectivity. Check it out before the Opening — It’s a very exciting project!” Critics have voiced concerns over the pool resurfacing with “industrial-grade” material in the color “American flag blue,” with a nonprofit called the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) going so far as to file a lawsuit against the National Park Service (NPS) to halt the project. TRUMP TAKES MOTORCADE INTO REFLECTING POOL, BLASTS PAST ‘$38M DISASTER’ FIX UNDER OBAMA “The vivid blue coating will fundamentally alter the visual and experiential character of the pool and the broader Lincoln Memorial Grounds landscape,” the group wrote in a complaint obtained by Politico. “The new coloration will cause the pool to resemble a large swimming pool rather than the reflective civic landscape it was designed to be, distorting the experience of the site for the millions of visitors who come to it each year.” When asked Saturday about the new photos shared by the president, TCLF president and CEO Charles A. Birnbaum told Fox News Digital “the primary issue is whether the law was followed before the painting began.” “Since the Reflecting Pool is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, reviews of work that would alter a key character-defining feature of this important national symbol should be subject to reviews under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act; and this project should have been reviewed by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, as other work on the Reflecting Pool has been reviewed over the past century,” Birnbaum said. The TCLF is a national, D.C.-based education and advocacy organization, not a preservation organization. TRUMP LAUNCHES MASSIVE ‘FREEDOM 250’ PUSH TO IGNITE AMERICA’S 250TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION In a separate Truth Social post earlier Saturday, Trump noted he has “decided to go to a much higher level of repair, using industrial strength materials, which will give a longer life, and a better look,” adding the job is “ahead of schedule.” The president’s repeated references to the materials used and expected completion date follow the publication of a New York Times article on Tuesday that alleged U.S. Department of the Interior staff highlighted concerns about the presence of bubbles, small holes and color inconsistencies in the partially refinished surface. Further, the outlet claimed to have documents showing that as of Sunday, only 35% of the pool surface had been fully coated and crucial joints had not yet been replaced — insinuating the job may not be completed in time for Independence Day. Interior Department spokesperson Katie Martin told The Times that sections of the basin were in various stages of repair. “The final product will be uniform, as the plan depicts,” Martin said. “As with any project, there will be revisions to the process to ensure the most efficient tools are used to get to the end goal.” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital “the restoration effort will be completed ahead of America’s 250th celebrations and for a fraction of the cost that the former Presidents Obama and Biden squandered only to worsen its condition. Thanks to President Trump, the Reflecting Pool will be restored to all its glory!” The Interior Department and New York Times did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Second FDA executive departing organization in less than a week as top drug regulator claims she was fired
Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg, former acting director of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), became the second high-ranking official to depart the FDA this week after claiming she was fired Friday. Høeg’s departure came after that of former FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, who publicly resigned Tuesday after rumors that President Donald Trump was unhappy with him swirled for days. Høeg, who worked closely with Makary on regulating drugs before being elevated to CDER head in December, claimed she was forced out. TRUMP’S FDA BOSS RESIGNING AS ADMIN TAPS NEXT ACTING LEADER “I said I didn’t want to resign,” Høeg told MD Reports in an interview published Friday. “I said I’m not signing a letter of resignation if it’s not my choice.” “They made it clear that it wasn’t their decision,” she told the outlet. “They said it was from someone above them, from someone way above their pay grade.” TRUMP FDA OVERHAULS COVID-19 VACCINE APPROVAL TO FOCUS ON OLDER POPULATIONS, HIGH-RISK INDIVIDUALS Høeg will be replaced by her former deputy, Dr. Mike Davis, according to an FDA email to staff obtained by The Associated Press. While the White House has yet to officially comment on her departure, Høeg’s exodus may be part of a larger shakeup following Makary’s resignation. In addition to Høeg, former director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) Katherine Szarama is also leaving, along with FDA Chief of Staff Jim Traficant, according to reporting from STAT News. Fox News Digital contacted the White House, the FDA, HHS and Høeg for comment.
ActBlue CEO faces June 10 grilling after fundraising powerhouse allegedly misled Congress on foreign donations
FIRST ON FOX: The embattled head of a Democratic fundraising behemoth is headed for a congressional grilling next month over allegations of fraudulent donations on its platform. ActBlue’s CEO Regina Wallace-Jones will testify in a public hearing before the House Administration Committee on June 10, a committee spokesman told Fox News Digital. Wallace-Jones’ agreement to testify comes as ActBlue faces mounting scrutiny over whether it misled Congress regarding foreign donations on its payment processing platform. “Ms. Wallace-Jones allegedly misled our committee at the outset of our investigation into ActBlue’s fraud prevention standards,” House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., said in a statement. “It’s past time we set the record straight and got answers for the American people. I look forward to hearing her testify.” DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT ACTBLUE ROCKED BY ALLEGATIONS IT MISLED CONGRESS ABOUT FOREIGN DONATIONS The statement referenced an explosive report in The New York Times earlier this year that said ActBlue’s then-outside counsel warned Wallace-Jones in 2023 the group may have misrepresented facts to Steil’s committee about its vetting of potentially illegal foreign donations. Under U.S. law, foreign nationals who are not lawful permanent residents are generally prohibited from donating to candidates seeking federal office or political action committees. Steil previously requested that Wallace-Jones testify before his committee on May 19. The invitation was met with outrage from ActBlue’s lawyers, who dismissed the committee action as a “partisan attack.” But Republicans have pointed to documents that ActBlue has allegedly withheld in response to subpoenas issued in 2025, which Steil has characterized as “deliberately incomplete.” All five current or former ActBlue employees who appeared in depositions with the committee invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination a combined 146 times, according to an interim staff report released in April by House Republicans. TEXAS AG PAXTON SUES DEM FUNDRAISING PLATFORM ACTBLUE, ALLEGING ‘FRAUDULENT AND FOREIGN DONATIONS’ The House Administration Committee has been probing ActBlue’s fraud prevention safeguards since 2023, when Steil’s panel investigated the group’s failure to require credit card verification value (CVV) when processing payments. “Given ActBlue’s demonstrated history of misleading Congress, there is considerable reason to believe that ActBlue may have deliberately withheld this responsive material to impede our investigation,” Steil and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter to Wallace-Jones in April. In the letter, the senior Republicans also directed ActBlue to produce a trove of documents related to its vetting of political contributions from abroad. Wallace-Jones has denied making false statements to Congress. The group’s lawyers have previously characterized the investigation as politically motivated and contended that ActBlue has been forthright with the committee. Amid the GOP scrutiny, ActBlue has experienced a wave of resignations from senior legal and compliance staff. The June hearing notice immediately follows the House Administration Committee advancing legislation to crack down on fraudulent political donations, including illegal contributions from foreigners. The campaign finance measure cleared Steil’s panel unanimously on Thursday. “It’s a positive sign that people are beginning to take this risk and this threat seriously,” the Wisconsin Republican told Spectrum News.
Israeli army kills Palestinian man, raids homes in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces killed a 34-year-old man in Jenin Camp, the Palestinian health ministry said. Published On 16 May 202616 May 2026 Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in a targeted attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says, as the army also storms homes amid settler attacks. The health ministry in Ramallah identified the victim of Saturday’s attack as 34-year-old Nour al-Din Kamal Hassan Fayyad, saying he was “killed by occupation forces’ fire in the Jenin camp”. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The Israeli military claimed that troops fired after he tried to “infiltrate” the Jenin camp area, wherein “the soldiers are operating, and the entry is prohibited”. Since January last year, Israel has launched major military operations in Palestinian refugee camps in the northern occupied territory. The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said that Israeli operations targeting Jenin and Tulkarem camps have displaced 40,000 Palestinians. Separately on Saturday, the Wafa news agency reported that Israeli soldiers arrested a young Palestinian man after assaulting him in the Shu’fat refugee camp, northeast of Jerusalem, and another from the village of Zawata, west of Nablus. Another Palestinian was assaulted by Israeli settlers in the town of Sinjil. Israeli forces also stormed the cities of Tubas and Qalqilya, and the towns of Tammun and Zaatara, east of Bethlehem, and raided the village of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, Wafa reported. The Israeli settlers set fire to an agricultural room and wrote racist slogans in the town of Turmus Aya, both northeast of Ramallah. ‘Attacks must stop’ Elsewhere, a senior UN official condemned an arson attack against a mosque and several vehicles in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. Advertisement Ramiz Alakbarov, the deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said that masked individuals set fire to the site in the village of Jibiya and drew Hebrew graffiti. “Attacks against religious sites and civilian property are unacceptable and undermine stability, human dignity, and freedom of worship,” Alakbarov said. He added that the attack comes against a backdrop of rising settler violence and intensifying attacks in the occupied West Bank that continue to endanger civilians and damage their property. “I call for an immediate and transparent investigation, and for all perpetrators to be held accountable,” he said. “These attacks must stop.” Adblock test (Why?)
Iran warns of readiness for war and economic costs as US talks falter
[unable to retrieve full-text content] Iranian leaders and TV have ramped up pressure on the US with a stream of messaging to domestic and foreign audiences.
How Thomas Massie came to represent Republican dissent in age of Trump
Since Donald Trump’s rise to the White House a decade ago, the United States president has purged his Republican Party of critics and rivals. Many politicians dropped their earlier criticism of him and earned a place in his inner circle. Others never sought re-election or retired in the middle of their term to avoid a fight with the president, who is known for personal insults and lack of tolerance for dissent. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list A few other legislators who chose to fight on were defeated by Trump-backed opponents in Republican primaries. Congressman Thomas Massie, a Kentucky libertarian, is one of the last dissidents standing. He has been a rare Republican thorn in the side of Trump since the US president’s return to power last year. Massie has voted against a key tax bill backed by the president, pushed for the release of government files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against the White House’s wishes and vocally opposed the war on Iran and US aid to Israel. Now Massie is in a fight for his career as he faces a Trump-endorsed Republican opponent – Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL officer – and an avalanche of pro-Israel spending in next week’s congressional primary in Kentucky. The contest, however, goes beyond Trump and could be a litmus test for the faultlines emerging within the Republican base, including over military interventions and support for Israel. For Massie’s supporters, the race on May 19 is a test for everything the congressman purports to stand for: unflinching loyalty to the US Constitution, political integrity and standing up to powerful special interest groups. On Wednesday, influential right-wing commentator Mike Cernovich underscored another aspect of the contest in Kentucky – a showdown gauging the influence of podcasters who support Massie against campaign spending and traditional conservative media outlets. Advertisement “Massie’s primary is an interesting one to watch because it’ll show if podcasters and social media can drive out the vote in a material way. It’s unlimited money on the other end,” Cernovich wrote on X. “If Massie loses, every Congress member will be cowed into fear. If he wins, it’s a new media era.” Who is Massie? So how did a 55-year-old House member come to represent a political movement at an inflection point in the modern history of US politics? An engineer and inventor, Massie was born in a town in the Appalachian hills in West Virginia, near Kentucky and Ohio. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and then went on to find a company that helped pioneer virtual reality technology and registered dozens of patents. Massie married his high school sweetheart Rhonda, who died of an illness in 2024, with whom he had four children. The family moved to Kentucky in 2003, and Massie sold his firm to subsequently pursue a career in politics. He became the judge-executive of Lewis County in 2011 and successfully ran for Congress a year later to represent Kentucky’s 4th District in the house of representatives, a Republican stronghold that encompasses rural areas as well as suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. Massie quickly earned a reputation as a rebel, bucking the bipartisan orthodoxy on foreign policy as well as his own party’s consensus on many issues. In the first vote of his full term, he joined 11 other Republicans to vote against the election of then-Speaker John Boehner and the only one to back his libertarian colleague Justin Amash to take the gavel. Willingness to vote against his own party, did not earn Massie many friends on the Democratic side. In 2021, Massie sparked a huge outcry from Democrats when he posted a Christmas photo of himself and his family members holding semi-automatic rifles at a time when gun violence was on the rise. At times, his uncompromising stances have earned him near universal scorn. In 2022, Massie voted against a bill to make lynching – the extrajudicial execution of African Americans during racial segregation in the south of the US – a federal crime. “This bill expands current federal ‘hate crime’ laws. A crime is a crime, and all victims deserve equal justice. Adding enhanced penalties for ‘hate’ tends to endanger other liberties such as freedom of speech,” he wrote in a social media post explaining his vote at that time. “Lynching a person is already illegal in every state. Passing this legislation falsely implies that lynching someone does not already constitute criminal activity.” Advertisement Backing a largely symbolic vote against something as despicable as lynching, even if he opposed it, may have been the easier option. The congressman has said that he has always had that rebellious streak. “I was simultaneously the teacher’s pet and the teacher’s worst nightmare,” Massie recently told Mother Jones magazine. “I would like to think I’ve become a lot more tactful, but I still won’t tolerate a wrong answer.” Despite advocating for gun rights and small government, Massie has been able to team up with Democrats to push forward specific issues, especially opposition to military campaigns abroad. Most recently, he became a leading figure in the effort to release the Epstein files, forging a strong partnership with Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna to pass a bill to compel the Justice Department to make the records public. CongressmanThomas Massie questions then-Attorney General Pam Bondi during a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing February 11 [File: Tom Brenner/AP Photo] Israel and the race Massie has also sided with Democrats in rejecting the war on Iran, and he has been one of the few Republican critics of unconditional US military aid to Israel. Massie’s opponents – including pro-Israel groups and donors – are flooding the airwaves with ads against the congressman, often portraying him as not conservative enough and highlighting his vote against the tax bill. One commercial that aired earlier this month featured deep fake, artificial intelligence-generated footage of Massie holding hands with progressive Democratic congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. The ad said Massie was caught in a
Petrol, diesel price hike: No online delivery today? App-based, gig workers call for nation-wide strike
Following major hike in petrol and diesel prices, gig workers have called for a temporary nationwide strike on Saturday.