Graham Platner finally embraced by powerful mainstream Dem leaders after primary election victory
Two top Democrat leaders who were hesitant to endorse embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner by name amid his controversies finally relented Tuesday night after he cruised to victory in his primary election. House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., issued a seemingly half-hearted joint statement backing Platner as he continues to face heat stemming from a multitude of scandals. “Over the past year, we have created a path to win a Democratic Senate majority and put a stop to the chaos and damage of the Trump administration by defeating the Republicans who enable his harmful agenda,” they wrote in a statement issued by the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) just after Platner was declared the winner. “In November, Maine voters will elect Graham Platner, and we will win a Senate majority,” they concluded. In the statement, the New York lawmakers attempted to paint moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, as a radical pro-Trump Republican despite her several breaks with the president. “Susan Collins has never been more vulnerable after she voted with Trump 96 percent of the time, confirmed his far-right judicial nominees, and took millions from special interests while voting to rip health care away from Mainers,” they listed. SCANDAL-PLAGUED PLATNER CAPTURES DEMOCRATIC SENATE NOMINATION Last week, Platner met with Gillibrand and Schumer, among other Democrats, during a crisis trip to Washington, D.C., in the midst of his latest scandal, which, at the time, was related to revelations of an account on a controversial messaging app. After that meeting, Gillibrand refused to say whether she still supported the progressive candidate. “I’m very confident we are going to win Maine,” she told reporters. “I do. I have confidence that we are going to win Maine and I have no doubt.” WATCH: DEM SENATORS EXCUSE PLATNER’S CONDUCT AT CRISIS HUDDLE WITH EMBATTLED MAINE CANDIDATE Schumer also attempted to duck direct questions from reporters at a Capitol Hill press conference following that meeting. “I met with Graham Platner today, we’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate,” he said. “We’re going to beat Susan Collins and take back the Senate.” After he was asked for the fifth time about the meetings, he begrudgingly used Platner’s name to back the candidate. WATCH: SCANDAL-PLAGUED PLATNER DODGES QUESTIONS BEFORE DC MEETING WITH DEMOCRATS “As I said, I endorsed Graham Platner,” he said. Before that meeting, Platner was embroiled in controversy after it was revealed that he has an active account on Kik, an anonymous chatting platform notorious for lax identification methods that have enabled the proliferation of child sexual abuse material. Platner used as his profile image on the application a sexually suggestive photo of himself shirtless and wearing only a towel around his waist. Just days after the meetings in D.C., the candidate was accused of physical misconduct, including aggressive behavior, with a former romantic partner. Platner denies those accusations. Platner’s previous scandals include sexually lewd Reddit posts, disrespectful comments made against a Purple Heart-winning combat veteran, a Nazi-linked tattoo on his chest that has since been covered up and reports he exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women while married. Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
Republicans fear of ‘fatal mistake’ in must-win Platner race
Senate Republicans are warning that scandal-plagued oysterman Graham Platner could still defeat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, if the party fails to take the race seriously. Republicans are defending several seats in expectedly close races, including Nebraska, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, while seeking to flip Georgia. Maine is different: Sen. Susan Collins’ seat is the only Republican-held Senate seat in a state won by Kamala Harris in 2024, making it Democrats’ most direct path to returning Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to the majority leader’s office, Republicans said in a memo circulated Wednesday. “It is a fatal mistake to assume Platner is too damaged to win,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) memo obtained by Fox News — addressed to “Interested Parties” — read. The NRSC agreed that Maine is the “linchpin” of the 35 seats up this year and that despite Platner’s Nazi tattoo, allegations of misogynist violence, arousal from biocide in port-a-johns, and his socialist policy platform, he remains a credible threat to the middle-of-the-road Collins. SEE IT: MAINE VOTERS SOUND OFF ON PLATNER’S DIVISIVE CAMPAIGN AS CRUCIAL PRIMARY NEARS: ‘HE’S A DISGRACE’ “Senator Collins has won tough races before and can win this one, but only if we meet this moment with total urgency,” the NRSC said. “Because Democrats cannot win the majority without [Collins’ seat], they have fully rallied around Graham Platner, an extremely flawed, far-left candidate who secured the nomination last night. Platner has captured his party’s financial backing, outraising Senator Collins in every quarter since entering the race. We must match both the energy and the money to retain the seat,” the memo said. The NRSC said Democrats don’t view Platner’s race as being about the flawed candidate but rather about usurping power. COLLINS SECURES GOP NOD IN MAINE SENATE BATTLE THAT COULD DECIDE GOP MAJORITY The committee said any one of Platner’s multiple scandals would have ended most campaigns, but Democrats remain united around him. The NRSC reported that after former girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield’s allegations against Platner broke, Platner raised $200,000 in one day in what the campaign said was its best haul of the cycle. “The political fundamentals in Maine remain challenging, and it is a fatal mistake to assume Platner is too damaged to win,” the NRSC said. Collins is the last remaining federal Republican in New England and the only Republican in the Senate north or east of Pennsylvania. The NRSC reported that Platner is beating Harris’ own margins by seven points while noting Collins has won tough races in the past, but this one is different. Collins won her last race against former Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon by about eight points, and her last electoral loss was way back in 1994 when now-Sen. Angus King Jr., I-Maine, won the governorship in a four-way contest. Republicans said in the memo that the biggest story in the past week about Platner is not his latest scandal, but the fact that Democrats are circling the wagons around him even more tightly and “propping him up.” WATCH: DEM SENATORS EXCUSE PLATNER’S CONDUCT AT CRISIS HUDDLE WITH EMBATTLED MAINE CANDIDATE They cited Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna visiting Maine to hold a gushy interview-slash-ad with Platner and the fact that Democrats keep claiming Collins and Trump are worse than the left-winger. “Gotta do what you gotta do,” the NRSC quoted former Biden deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty, while noting that Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse publicly claimed Platner’s foibles are a “lot of nothing.” They also pointed to one of the most influential Democratic operatives claiming that Platner’s flaws actually bolster his qualifications. Platner had disparaged former Pennsylvania lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Teddy Daniels after video of the Purple Heart recipient being besieged and gravely wounded by the Taliban surfaced several years ago. “We’ve got a f—ed up guy who could be 100 times more f—ed up than he is and he’d never be as f—ed up as what we’ve got in Washington,” said 1992 Bill Clinton campaign architect James Carville, who suggested that Platner’s apparent PTSD should be a symbol on the Hill as to why neoconservatives have been wrong about war powers. “This is not a party abandoning its nominee. This is a party rationalizing, accepting, and preparing to fight,” the NRSC said. “Republicans need to match that urgency immediately. Define Platner. Defend Collins. Resource Maine,” they said. “Senator Collins has proven time and time again, through her work ethic and commitment to the people of Maine and America, that she will prevail.” “This race can be won, but it will not win itself.” NRSC national press secretary Bernadette Breslin exclusively told Fox News Digital that Platner “has become the new face of the Democratic Party, forcing Democrats to own his mounting scandals and socialist wish list.” “Come November, Mainers will see through his fraudulent working-class persona and reject the political baggage Democrats are now stuck defending,” Breslin said. Fox News Digital reached out to the DSCC, Platner campaign and Collins campaign for further comment.
Karmelo Anthony verdict draws anti-white rage and lies from radical Dem congresswoman, angry activists
A Texas congresswoman is leading the voice of online activists enraged over the guilty verdict in Karmelo Anthony’s murder trial, and is spreading outright lies and racially inflammatory rhetoric after the 19-year-old was sentenced to 35 years in prison for stabbing Austin Metcalf to death. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a rare radical Democrat elected in deep red Texas, took to her podcast after Tuesday’s verdict to make false claims about the trial and its jury as she continues to stir up racial hatred. “I’m not necessarily convinced — not that I could tell you the name of one person on this jury — that we had 12 impartial White folk out of Collin County sitting on a jury for this young black man,” she said, exhibiting her empathy for the convicted murderer. Her claim about the jury is patently false. Sources close to the trial confirmed to Fox News Digital that the jury was not made up only of white people, despite Crockett’s claim, which has been parroted by activists online. Of the 12 jurors, three were racial minorities, including Asian and Indian, eight were women and four were men. They confirmed that of the 18 total jurors, including alternates, six were minorities. KARMELO ANTHONY JURY REACHES VERDICT IN MURDER TRIAL IN TEXAS TRACK MEET STABBING The jury in the trial, which spanned nine days in a Collin County, Texas, courtroom this month, found that Anthony intentionally stabbed Metcalf, then 18, to death on April 2, 2025. The murder took place after Anthony entered the Memorial High School track team’s tent at a meet in Frisco, and refused 15 times to leave when asked. Witnesses testified that Metcalf lightly shoved Anthony in an attempt to remove him from the tent, after which the teen reached into his bag, pulled out a knife, and stabbed Metcalf in the chest. The victim bled to death in front of his twin brother and teammates, many of whom testified at the trial. Crockett surmised the jury likely convicted Anthony because residents of Collin County are upset that, “so many black folk are moving up there in the first place.” MOURNING MOTHER, TWIN BROTHER OF SLAIN TEXAS TEEN SPEAK OUT: ‘LOST MY BEST FRIEND IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE’ The congresswoman, who will not retain her seat in the House after redistricting in Texas pushed her district red, bizarrely compared black women in America to the victim’s family. “Black women, especially black women who have black male children, live in fear and agony every single day,” she lamented. “A fear and agony that I promise you the Metcalfs probably had never spend a day living that way.” That comment was branded as “psychotic” by White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller on X. KARMELO ANTHONY TRIAL CONSUMED BY RACE AND SELF-DEFENSE, BUT HIDDEN HURDLE COULD BE KEY: EXPERT Crockett, an attorney, also claimed that the knife Anthony used to kill Metcalf was not a deadly weapon, and downplayed its size. Activists outside the courthouse sounded off after the verdict was handed down. Dominique Alexander, a local Black Lives Matter activist who has been involved with the Anthony family since Karmelo’s arrest, slammed injected racial rhetoric into the conversation. AUSTIN METCALF’S ACCUSED KILLER NEEDS SUPPORT FIGHTING ‘WHITE SUPREMACY’ AFTER MURDER INDICTMENT: SPOX “What this process did is show that black lives do not matter in Collin County,” he said. “This trial showed that it put emotions over the law. After Trayvon Martin and so many countless names, it has shown us that Black life is not safe in Collin County.” Martin was killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, in 2012. A jury in that case found that Zimmerman acted in self-defense. Alexander also claimed without evidence that the judge in the case “interfered in this process,” and repeated the false claim that the jury was “all white.” Bree Newsome, an online far-leftist, insisted that race was a factor in the case. “Karmelo Anthony would be treated totally different by the legal system were he a white boy killing a black boy,” she said. “That’s the whole point. That’s what matters. Stop pretending there’s anything Black people can do in our behavior to prevent racism. Racism defines the entire system.” Crockett’s office did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
First on Fox: Trump admin opens new front in fraud crackdown targeting health insurers, drug middlemen
FIRST ON FOX: The Trump administration is lifting the hood on federal health benefits programs that cover millions of Americans, ordering insurance carriers to tighten fraud controls as part of a broader crackdown on waste and abuse, Fox News Digital learned. “Working alongside the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, OPM is taking additional steps to safeguard the premiums paid by federal employees and taxpayers, protect beneficiaries, and ensure health insurance companies are meeting the highest standards of accountability,” said Office of Personnel Management (OPM) director Scott Kupor to Fox News Digital. OPM functions as the federal government’s human resources agency, overseeing civilian personnel policy and administering benefits for federal employees, retirees and their families. OPM, partnered with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, is sending new compliance expectations on Wednesday to insurance carriers in the Federal Employees Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits programs, directing them to strengthen fraud prevention, payment reviews, pharmacy benefit oversight, subcontractor accountability, audits and reporting, Fox News Digital learned. READ: DR. OZ PUTS ALL 50 GOVERNORS ON NOTICE OVER BILLIONS LOST TO MEDICAID FRAUD The push also targets pharmacy benefit managers, the drug-pricing middlemen that administer prescription drug benefits for health plans and negotiate with drugmakers and pharmacies. The FEHB program cost the government and enrollees about $70 billion in fiscal 2024 and covered more than 8.2 million federal employees, family members and other eligible individuals, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “OPM is a valuable partner and leader on the Task Force. The steps taken today will protect taxpayers and our federal workforce,” White House Task Force Executive Director Scott Brady told Fox News Digital. OPM is also building a data science and audit team with the agency’s inspector general to review anonymized claims data and detect fraud, waste and overbilling more proactively. HOUSE GOP LAUNCHES NEW TASK FORCE, PROBES ALLEGED $250B MEDICAID FRAUD IN OHIO The Government Accountability Office said in a July 2025 report that OPM should do more to manage fraud risks in the FEHB program, citing risks including benefit card sharing, improper inducements, insufficient or fraudulent documentation, kickbacks, marketing fraud, theft of personally identifiable information, provider ineligibility and self-referrals. The announcement marks the latest crackdown in medical programs following the launch of a nationwide probe into Medicaid. CMS directed all 50 states to submit plans to revalidate high-risk Medicaid providers, including providers subject to less rigorous enrollment standards or operating without a National Provider Identifier in April. Vice President JD Vance, who is leading the task force, amplified the call in May, saying during a news conference that states could lose federal funding if they fail to aggressively pursue Medicaid fraud. The push comes amid heightened focus on large-scale fraud cases, including Minnesota’s $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scheme, which became a national flashpoint in recent months.
Sanctions on settlers not enough: Target Israeli gov’t, say campaigners
Israeli settlers and far-right ministers have been slapped with new Western sanctions. But human rights groups and Palestinian campaigners say the measures fail to address systemic state complicity in the occupation of Palestinian territories. While the latest actions have been framed as a decisive stand against settler violence, political analysts and legal experts argue that isolating individual actors serves to deflect from the lack of broader institutional penalties against the Israeli government itself. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list On June 9, 2026, the United Kingdom, alongside Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and Norway, announced coordinated sanctions against networks financing and executing settler violence. The UK targeted six entities and one individual, while France banned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, three settler group leaders, and 21 settlers from entering the country. Smotrich and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have been censored by several European countries previously for their rhetoric against Palestinians and support for settler violence. ‘Too little, too late’ Critics point out that the limited scope of the sanctions does not match the scale of the crisis. Jennifer Larbie, Christian Aid’s head of UK influencing, described the decision to sanction so few entities as “derisory” and a clear example of the UK government doing “too little too late” while Palestinians are forced from their land. This sentiment was echoed by Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative. He told Al Jazeera Arabic that Western leaders are facing unprecedented public backlash for their ties to Israel. Advertisement “These governments are trying to cover up their shortcomings with low-value measures,” Barghouti said, arguing that the sanctions reflect a need to manage public anger rather than a genuine shift in state policy. He stressed that the Israeli government itself is the entity that plans, funds, and executes settlement expansion. Israel has undermined the Oslo Accords, which called for the freezing of settlements. At the time of the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, some 250,000 settlers lived in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The settlement population has now grown to more than 700,000, while some three million Palestinians live in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Despite international legal obligations – and a July 2024 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion explicitly stating that all states are under an obligation not to recognise or assist Israel’s illegal occupation – the European Union has largely failed to implement a blanket ban on trade with settlement-based entities. While EU guidelines state that agreements with Israel do not apply to the occupied territories, member states have routinely stopped short of imposing binding economic embargoes, allowing goods produced on stolen Palestinian land to continually enter European markets. Products such as Medjool dates, avocados, wines and cosmetics, among others produced in the occupied West Bank settlements, are exported to Europe. Shielding the architects By focusing on individual settler outposts or far-right figures like Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, Western states risk creating a false distinction between “extremist” settlers and the Israeli state apparatus. Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, stated that targeting settler financing networks while ignoring the ministers who are running settler campaigns is not meaningful accountability. “It leaves the architects untouched,” Benedict said, calling on the UK to sanction Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and other senior officials. Netanyahu and Gallant face International Criminal Court (ICC) warrants for war crimes. An inquiry by the United Nations has previously found that Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, injured, and displaced Palestinians, with Israeli forces actively providing protection. Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have long track records of inciting violence and expanding the occupation. Following a deadly settler rampage in the Palestinian town of Huwara in early 2023, Smotrich notoriously declared that the village should be “wiped out” by the Israeli state. Advertisement Furthermore, Smotrich has used his dual role in the Defence Ministry to quietly transfer administrative powers over the West Bank from the military to civilian control, a move legal experts describe as de facto annexation. Meanwhile, Ben-Gvir has personally distributed thousands of assault rifles to settler “national guard” members, and has frequently praised settlers accused of murdering Palestinians, portraying them as heroes defending Israel. Mohanad Mustafa, an academic and expert on Israeli affairs, noted that figures like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir do not regularly travel to Europe and rely primarily on political and financial ties with the United States. “These sanctions do not target the Israeli government,” Mustafa told Al Jazeera Arabic, explaining that the measures inadvertently create a comfortable narrative for Israel by portraying the extremism as isolated to specific ministers rather than a state-sponsored enterprise. For its part, Israel swiftly rejected the sanctions. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Oren Marmorstein called them “disgraceful measures” and an attempt to impose a political stance regarding the “right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel”. Under international law, Israel’s settlements built on Palestinian lands are illegal. A UN resolution in September 2024 called for an end to the occupation within a year, but Israel has failed to comply. In fact, it has doubled down and announced more settlements. Israel routinely denies that its troops protect violent settlers, claiming such acts are rogue incidents that violate military protocol. But numerous reports by media and rights groups show Israeli forces’ complicity in attacks on Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians have been jailed without trial, and Palestinians have recounted horrific abuse inside Israeli custody. The arms and trade loophole Campaigners point out that Western countries’ actions come as they continue to sell arms and engage in free trade with Israel, which faces a case of genocide at the ICJ. Most rights organisations and genocide scholars have said that Israeli actions in Gaza do constitute genocide. The UK government recently updated its business guidance to explicitly advise against economic activity in illegal settlements, but it stressed that it continues to support trade with Israel within its 1967 borders. Larbie called
Bill Gates appears before Congress to testify over Epstein files
NewsFeed Microsoft founder Bill Gates appeared before Congress to voluntarily testify in a congressional probe into the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Gates said he hoped his testimony would support efforts to secure justice for victims. Published On 10 Jun 202610 Jun 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
US diplomat found dead in Myanmar, Thai woman in custody
The US Department of State confirms the fatality, but refuses to provide more information about the person’s death in Yangon. Published On 10 Jun 202610 Jun 2026 A United States diplomat has been found dead in Myanmar’s largest city, according to the US Department of State, and three members of the diplomatic community in Yangon say a Thai woman has been detained by police in connection with the investigation. The US State Department confirmed to the Associated Press news agency on Wednesday that a US diplomat serving at the US Embassy in Yangon had died. The department did not provide further details about the circumstances surrounding the person’s death or its cause. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list “Out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones, we have no further information to provide at this time,” it said. According to three people in the diplomatic community in Myanmar, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the case, Myanmar police are treating the death as a possible murder. They said the person was found dead two weeks ago at a hotel about 1.5 kilometres (one mile) from the US Embassy. The facility, with long-term rentals, is popular with diplomats, business people and other international visitors. Myanmar police have not publicly commented on the case. Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said it has provided consular assistance to the woman in custody and notified her family, but would not comment further. Situation in Myanmar Myanmar is in the midst of a civil war that began more than five years ago when the country’s democratically elected government was overthrown in a military coup. The military leadership that now governs Myanmar is estimated to control just 21 percent of the country after years of fighting against ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy forces. Advertisement More than 96,000 people have been killed, according to the international monitor the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). At least 3.6 million have been displaced, according to the United Nations. In April, former leader Aung San Suu Kyi was moved to house arrest after President Min Aung Hlaing pardoned and commuted the sentences of thousands of prisoners. Suu Kyi, age 80, still has 13 years of detention remaining. Adblock test (Why?)
West Bengal: Muslim woman forced to chant ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, details here
A viral video from West Bengal shows BJP MLA Koustav Bagchi prompting a woman beneficiary of the Annapurna Yojna to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ during a public event.
Zoji-La Tunnel,: After Taj Mahal, Iranian genius helps India build longest road tunnel; Know about his education, family background
Zoji-La Tunnel, a strategic infrastructure project, is designed to provide all-weather connectivity between Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Know the team behind Asia’s longest bi-directional road tunnel.
Sushmita Dev resigns: TMC rift deepens as Mamata Banerjee’s party hit by second MP exit in a week
Trinamool Congress (TMC) has been further broken as its senior Rajya Sabha MP, Sushmita Dev, resigned, marking the second MP from the party to resign from Rajya Sabha in a week.