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Sen. John Kennedy tore into the massive COVID-era fraud case uncovered in Minnesota’s “Feeding Our Future” scandal, blasting it as one of the most staggering abuses of federal aid ever exposed. The Louisiana Republican didn’t hold back on the Senate floor, calling the situation “a clown world on steroids” and “deeply disgusting.”

Speaking about the scheme, Kennedy highlighted what federal prosecutors have described as an unprecedented theft of taxpayer funds. “For the last five years, there has been massive welfare fraud in the great state of Minnesota. Over one billion dollars of American taxpayer dollars has been stolen — just stolen. They can call it fraud, but a better term would be stealing. And this fraud has been centered in the Somali community in Minnesota,” he said, adding that learning how taxpayer dollars were misused makes him “angry.”
“It makes me want to knee someone in the groin,” Kennedy said, directing his fury at state officials and insisting on full accountability. “It just makes me furious and I think the American taxpayers feel the same way.”

Kennedy emphasized that his criticism was not aimed at every member of Minnesota’s Somali population. He noted that he does not wish to “criticize the 80,000 members of the Somali community” living in the state, while also stressing, “it is a fact that this one billion dollars in welfare fraud occurred almost exclusively in the Somali community.”

Reporting from the New York Times was the first to outline how the scheme proliferated within segments of Minnesota’s Somali community, with various individuals setting up entities that billed state agencies for social services that were never delivered. Some of those involved were connected to Feeding Our Future, a fraudulent nonprofit that claimed to provide meals to needy children and received $250 million through the Federal Child Nutrition Program.

According to the Times’ earlier reporting, “Federal prosecutors say that 59 people have been convicted in those schemes so far, and that more than $1 billion in taxpayers’ money has been stolen in three plots they are investigating. That is more than Minnesota spends annually to run its Department of Corrections.”

Peter Schweizer, head of the Government Accountability Institute, said the evidence makes the fraud unmistakable. “Hundreds of millions of dollars were diverted again by several dozen Somali nationals, who took the money they were supposed to be using to feed children. And in fact, we’re pocketing for criminal instances,” he said. “It was 125 million meals that this charity claimed that they were providing to children that were not provided at all.”

The White House has described the scandal as involving “a massive, complex network of nonprofits and affiliates” that purported to aid thousands of underprivileged children, serve the homeless, and offer therapy for autistic Somali youth. In reality, “Kickbacks were paid, lavish lifestyles were funded, and money was sent overseas — some of it even allegedly funneled to a terror group,” the administration said.

President Donald Trump weighed in sharply on the revelations, denouncing Minnesota as “a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity” and announcing he was ending Temporary Protected Status for Somali nationals in the state. He also made clear he opposed allowing additional Somali immigrants to remain in the U.S. “We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” he said, arguing that the state had become a “hellhole” because of the community. “Somalians should be out of here,” he told reporters. “They’ve destroyed our country.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz fired back, condemning Trump’s remarks as inflammatory and beyond the bounds of any past presidential rhetoric. He said Trump had slurred an entire community — the largest Somali population in America — and insulted the state as a whole. “We’ve got little children going to school today who their president called them garbage,” Walz said, calling the comments “unprecedented for a United States president.”

Republican legislative leaders, while not embracing Walz’s rebuke of Trump, countered that the outrage now engulfing the state could have been avoided if the governor had acted sooner and more forcefully to prevent fraud within Minnesota’s welfare programs.

{Matzav.com}

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended strikes on alleged drug cartel boats during remarks Saturday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, saying President Donald Trump has the power to take military action “as he sees fit” to defend the nation. Hegseth dismissed criticism of the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people […]

Governor Kathy Hochul made clear on Thursday that New York City’s incoming mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has no legal power to detain Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, directly contradicting Mamdani’s repeated claims that he would attempt to do so if Netanyahu sets foot in the city.

The governor’s comments came as she sought to distance herself from several of Mamdani’s hard-line positions on Israel ahead of his January 1 inauguration. While Hochul has consistently aligned herself with Israel, Mamdani has long been identified with anti-Israel activism and has drawn widespread concern from Jewish communities. Despite her differences with him on these matters, Hochul endorsed Mamdani during his campaign.

Speaking to reporters, Hochul addressed the mayor-elect’s declaration directly. According to Politico, when asked about Mamdani’s vow to arrest Netanyahu, she rejected the notion outright and added, “The New York City mayor does not have the power to do that.”

Mamdani has pointed to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant as justification for his threat, but the argument does not stand on firm legal ground. The ICC has no jurisdiction inside the United States, and federal law expressly forbids state or municipal authorities from cooperating with the court. Additionally, another federal statute protects foreign officials — including sitting heads of state — from detention or interference.

Legal specialists have echoed this assessment, noting that Mamdani’s threat carries no legal weight whatsoever.

Netanyahu, for his part, brushed aside the mayor-elect’s remarks, announcing Wednesday that he still intends to travel to New York. The prime minister traditionally visits the city each fall to address the United Nations General Assembly.

The controversy over the ICC warrant has intensified in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal reported that prosecutor Karim Khan accelerated the issuance of the warrant for Netanyahu without carrying out a planned investigation, doing so after a subordinate accused him of misconduct. The report added that Khan then leveraged the warrants in an effort to pressure that accuser into abandoning the allegations.

{Matzav.com}

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came under sharp questioning today over whether he intends to follow through on President Donald Trump’s public assurance that the full video of the controversial double-tap airstrike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean will be released.

Hegseth appeared at the Reagan National Defense Forum, where Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson raised the issue directly during a Q&A. Referring to recent briefings that Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley delivered on Capitol Hill, Tomlinson asked, “After Admiral [Frank ‘Mitch’] Bradley’s meetings from Capitol Hill with joint chiefs, President Trump said he would have no problem if the full video of the strike is released. When can we see that video? When will you release it?”

Hegseth avoided making any commitment, saying only that the Pentagon is considering the implications. “We are reviewing it right now to make sure sources, methods — I mean, it’s an ongoing operation right now, TTPs,” he said. “We have operators out there doing this now. Whatever we decide, we have to be responsible and we are reviewing it.”

Tomlinson then referenced a Washington Post report alleging that Hegseth had instructed forces to kill everyone on the vessel, even survivors. The secretary immediately shot down the claim. “Is anybody here from The Washington Post? I don’t know where you get your sources, but they suck.”

He went on to reject the report entirely. “Of course not! Anybody that has been in this situation room, or has been in the war room there, the secretary’s office, know you don’t walk in and say, ‘Kill them all —’ It’s patently ridiculous. It’s meant to create a cartoon of me.”

Hegseth then offered a broader defense of the operation and the professionals carrying it out. “What people think is cavalier or cowboy about it is the opposite. These are the most professional Americans going through specific processes about what they can and cannot do, understanding all the authorities, all the laws of war, all the capabilities, and applying it to deter our adversaries.”

He intensified his argument by detailing the operational goals behind the missions. “And by the way, there are not many people getting in boats right now running drugs, which is the whole point. We want to stop the poisoning of the American people. The catch and release program of the ‘pat them on the head and release them so they can go back to the fight’ did not work in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it’s not gonna work in the Caribbean. So, we’re putting them at the bottom of the Caribbean, which forces them to change the way they operate, and hopefully it makes the American people safer — not hopefully, it will make the American people safer in the process.”

Tomlinson pressed again: “So, Mr. Secretary, you will be releasing that full video?”

Hegseth repeated his earlier line. “We are reviewing it right now.”

The reporter pushed for clarity: “Is that a yes or no?”

The secretary again declined to give a definitive response. “That is — We’re — The most important thing to me are the ongoing operations in the Caribbean with our folks that use bespoke capabilities, techniques, procedures in the process. I’m way more interested in protecting that than anything else. So, we’re reviewing the process and we’ll see.”
{Matzav.com}

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Thursday that once he enters office in January, the city will halt all future clearings of homeless encampments — a dramatic reversal of one of the Adams administration’s defining enforcement strategies.

Speaking to reporters at an unrelated Manhattan press event, Mamdani dismissed the current policy as ineffective and fundamentally misguided. Pointing to the failure to place displaced individuals into long-term living situations, he argued, “If you are not connecting homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need, then you cannot deem anything you’re doing to be a success.”

He said the city must pivot toward a strategy centered entirely on securing stable places to live for those on the streets. “We are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing,” Mamdani said.

The incoming mayor emphasized that all forms of housing should be on the table — supportive units, rental apartments, and other available options — while faulting the belief that homelessness is simply an unavoidable urban condition. “Whether it’s supportive housing, whether it’s rental housing, whatever kind of housing it is, because what we have seen is the treatment of homelessness as if it is a natural part of living in this city, when in fact, it’s more often a reflection of a political choice being made.”

Despite the sweeping shift he promised, Mamdani did not provide any concrete plan for how to resolve the sprawling encampment-related complaints that flood the city’s system. Between January and November 2025 alone, more than 45,000 311 calls were filed concerning makeshift camps.

Mayor Eric Adams made encampment removal a central policy goal early in his term, unveiling the push in March 2022 with a blunt declaration: “We cannot tolerate these makeshift, unsafe houses on the side of highways, in trees, in front of schools, in parks. This is just not acceptable, and it’s something I’m just not going to allow to happen.”

But the results were grim. A subsequent audit revealed that roughly 95% of the individuals displaced in these clearances ended up back on the streets soon after their shelters were dismantled.

City Hall rejected the comptroller’s findings, defending the policy as far more successful than critics claimed. In a separate statement Thursday, spokesperson Fabien Levy said, “Cherry-picking numbers and sharing them out of context paint a disingenuous picture as these cleanups have actually connected more than 500 New Yorkers to safe, stable housing.”

Levy also stressed the city’s broader achievements, adding, “New York City continues to have the lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness of any major city in the nation.”

{Matzav.com}

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa leveled a blistering accusation against Israel on Saturday, charging that Jerusalem is deliberately “exporting crises” to neighboring countries in an effort to divert international attention from what he called “horrifying massacres” in Gaza. Speaking during an onstage interview at the Doha Forum in Qatar, Sharaa claimed Israel is manufacturing regional instability […]

Israeli officials have informed mediators that members of Islamic Jihad possess direct knowledge of the whereabouts of Yasam officer Ran Gvili, who was seized amid the fighting in Gaza. According to the same message, Hamas is also believed to have the ability to access him.

Channel 12 News reported that Israel supplied mediators with intelligence pointing to Gvili’s potential location and is insisting on swift, forceful diplomatic engagement to secure his return. Israel has emphasized that any delay is unacceptable and expects concrete movement immediately.

An Israeli official told reporters, “The mediators are signaling that Hamas is showing interest in honoring the hostages-and-missing agreement and wants to move to the next stage, which includes disarmament and demilitarization of the Strip.”

The official added that Hamas is aware of its narrowing options. “Hamas already understands they have no choice but to move toward disarmament and demilitarization. Either they agree to it, or we will dismantle their weapons ourselves. We will not leave in Gaza a threat to the State of Israel.”

{Matzav.com}

Canada revealed Friday that it is taking Syria and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham off its roster of designated terrorist entities, marking a major shift in its approach to groups now tied to the interim authorities governing Syria following the fall of the Assad regime. The organization, once under the leadership of Syrian president Ahmad al-Sharaa, is now formally linked to the transitional government attempting to rebuild the country.

In a statement laying out the policy change, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand emphasized that the move parallels steps made by key Western allies. She explained that the decision “is consistent with policy taken by Canada’s partners – the United States and the United Kingdom – and is part of a broader effort to promote stability in the Middle East and to combat global terrorist threats.”

Anand stressed that Canada has not softened its stance toward global jihadist networks, underscoring that Ottawa maintains a strict posture toward organizations such as al-Qaida and ISIS. She said Canada remains fully committed to countering these threats, even as it recognizes “positive steps taken by the interim government in Syria.” She added, “We stand with the Syrian people in their struggle for a future of stability and prosperity.”

Canada’s engagement with Syria over the past decade has included significant humanitarian investment. From 2016 to 2025, Ottawa allocated $4.7 billion to support relief efforts in Syria and in countries absorbing displaced Syrians. During the same period, more than 100,000 refugees fleeing the civil war were resettled in Canada as part of its national admissions program.

{Matzav.com}

Wildfires in Australia’s New South Wales have torn through thousands of hectares of bushland, prompting authorities to urge thousands of residents to evacuate.

A major gathering at Ancient Shiloh on Friday turned sharply political when Dr. Mike Evans, a prominent Evangelical figure and onetime adviser to President Donald Trump, publicly challenged remarks made by US Vice President JD Vance regarding Israel’s authority over Judea and Samaria.

The event, organized by Binyamin Regional Council head Israel Ganz, brought roughly 1,000 Evangelical leaders to the Binyamin region. From the podium, Dr. Evans confronted Vance’s recent comments head-on. “You said something, Mr. Vice President, that is not accurate. You said, ‘The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy.’”

Evans stressed his admiration for America and for Vance personally, but insisted that biblical history and divine promise override political talking points. “Mr. Vice President- we love you. We love you and we love America. But there’s something you have to understand. The policy of the G-d who birthed America and the policy of the God who gave these people this land is, in fact that Judea and Samaria is Bible land.”

He invoked the deep historical roots of the area, emphasizing how central it is to Jewish identity. “Eighty percent of the Bible stories come out of Judea and Samaria, Mr. Vice President. And here in Shiloh was the spot. This was the capital of Israel. This is where the Samuel was and the Tabernacle was. It was all right here.”

Evans concluded with a pointed admonition to Washington to avoid pressuring Israel on territorial concessions. “We’re grateful that America is getting the illegals out of America. We’re supporting that. But don’t pressure Israel to give illegal, radical, Islam, Jew haters: Judea and Samaria.”

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump on Saturday presented medals to the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees during a ceremony in the Oval Office, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled. This year’s recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the […]

Israeli forces blocked what could have been a devastating assault in the Chevron region this evening, when IDF paratroopers stopped two attackers who tried to ram their vehicle into Israelis at a police checkpoint. One Israeli sustained only minor injuries in the incident.

According to the IDF, “a short while ago, two terrorists accelerated their vehicle toward IDF soldiers during an operational activity at a security checkpoint in Chevron.” Troops immediately opened fire, bringing the threat to an abrupt end. “The soldiers fired at the terrorists and eliminated them,” the statement added.

Following the clash, the IDF reported that an uninvolved Palestinian Authority Arab was also killed amid the gunfire exchange, noting that the circumstances are under review.

{Matzav.com}

Trump advisor Alex Bruesewitz is asked if he disagrees with President Trump on anything at the 2025 Doha Forum – “He said that he would arrest Hillary Clinton; and she’s at the Doha Forum instead of jail.”

Volodymyr Zelensky said he held a “constructive” conversation with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, describing it as a focused effort to explore how to bring an “end to the bloodshed.” The call coincided with the third consecutive day of American and Ukrainian delegations convening in Miami for another round of discussions aimed at halting the conflict.

After the call, Zelensky wrote on X that “we covered many aspects and went through key points that could ensure an end to the bloodshed and eliminate the threat of a new Russian full scale invasion, as well as the risk of Russia failing to honour its promises, as has happened repeatedly in the past.” He added that “we agreed on the next steps and formats for talks with the United States.”

Kyiv’s security leadership — including national security adviser Rustem Umerov and Andrii Hnatov, chief of staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces — is slated to brief Zelensky upon returning home, he noted. Their report is expected to outline what, if anything, the latest exchanges with Washington might yield.

The diplomatic track unfolded against the backdrop of one of Russia’s most punishing overnight assaults in months. Ukraine’s air force reported that Moscow launched 653 drones and 51 missiles in a sweeping overnight strike that hammered the country’s already fragile energy network and set off air raid sirens nationwide.

Local authorities said at least eight people were injured, with three hurt in the Kyiv region. Substations and power-generation facilities took significant hits, and one of the two power lines feeding the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was knocked offline, causing the facility to lose external electricity yet again — the eleventh such outage since the start of Moscow’s invasion, officials said. The head of Ukraine’s state grid operator characterized the destruction as “quite severe,” according to the Kyiv Independent.

Zelensky condemned the barrage on Telegram, calling it “a meaningless strike from a military point of view.” He stressed that “the main targets of these strikes are once again energy infrastructure. The goal of the Russians is to hurt millions of Ukrainians, and they have already fallen so low that they launch missiles at peaceful cities on St. Nicholas Day.”

Poland’s air force revealed that its fighter jets were scrambled as the hours-long attack on western Ukraine approached its borders, prompting Warsaw to reinforce its airspace defenses.

These latest developments follow an earlier, extended sit-down in Moscow between Vladimir Putin, Witkoff, and Kushner — a meeting that culminated in the Kremlin declaring parts of the peace framework “unacceptable.”

After the follow-up talks in Miami, which began Thursday, the U.S. delegation acknowledged the challenges ahead. In a statement on Friday, Witkoff wrote: “Both parties agreed that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings.”

{Matzav.com}

After an illegal alien stabbed an individual on the Charlotte light rail last night. Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Another stabbing by an Illegal Migrant in Charlotte, North Carolina. What’s going on in Charlotte? Democrats are destroying it, like everything else, piece by piece!!! President DJT”

In Badulla, Sri Lanka, an Indian Air Force Mi-17 doing disaster-relief work got stuck after landing off-site, and footage shows personnel physically pushing the helicopter out of the mud.

Authorities hunted Saturday for the last of three inmates who escaped from a Louisiana jail after removing concrete blocks from a deteriorating wall. “We would prefer that he surrender himself peaceably,” St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby J. Guidroz said in a statement, “but we will not rest until he is captured.” Detectives and SWAT officers […]

Ghassan Duhine has become the new leader of Anti-Hams Popular Forces in Rafah, Gaza, replacing Yasser Abu Shabab, who was killed this past week.

Tom Barrack, US Ambassador to Turkey on Iran: “President Trump is not interested in kicking the can down the road. Tehran needs to listen to the U.S. on zero enrichment, stopping funding of terror proxies, and “our president is smart enough to know that baiting him just to get a dialogue and continuing this senseless […]

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth: Allies that step up like Israel, South Korea, Poland, increasingly Germany, the Baltics, and others will receive our special favor. Allies that still fail to do their part for collective defense will face consequences.