More than 100 pro-Palestinian activists caused over $1.1 million in damages at a Belgian defense facility this week in a raid that inadvertently disrupted aid to Ukraine, not Israel. The group, affiliated with the “Stop Arming Israel” campaign, broke into the OIP Land Systems warehouse in Tournai around 4:50 a.m. Monday. Armed with hammers and spray paint, the vandals shattered windows, defaced equipment, and rendered dozens of armored vehicles temporarily inoperable. The company confirmed the vehicles were intended for Ukrainian forces fighting Russia—not for Israeli use. The raid took place at one of Europe’s largest private weapons storage facilities. OIP Land Systems has played a key role in supplying Ukraine’s military since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The protestors claim their attack targeted “Belgian companies with connections to Israeli armament,” citing the fact that OIP Land Systems is part of OIP Sensor Systems, a subsidiary of Israeli defense giant Elbit Systems. But company president Freddy Versluys pushed back hard on those claims. “We don’t sell anything to Israel,” he said in a statement. “The vandals entered the hangar and damaged extensive equipment. The only damage they caused is a one-month delay in delivering the vehicles to Ukraine.” Photos posted on social media by members of the group show the words “Stop Genocide” and “No Arms for Israel” scrawled across Ukrainian military vehicles, with shattered windshields and ripped cables visible in the background. The Belgian Ministry of Defense and local police have launched an investigation. So far, no arrests have been reported. The incident has sparked frustration from both Belgian officials and Ukraine’s European backers, who argue the protest misfired—undermining Ukraine’s defense efforts at a critical time. OIP Land Systems has supplied hundreds of armored vehicles and surveillance systems to Kyiv over the past two years, and its Tournai facility has become a logistical hub for Western support to Ukrainian troops on the frontlines. The raid also underscores the growing complexities of European defense supply chains in a time of escalating geopolitical tensions. While Elbit Systems’ ownership stake may make OIP a political target for some activists, the company’s operations in Belgium have remained focused on Ukraine. Versluys confirmed that the company is working to repair the damaged vehicles and expects to resume shipments to Ukrainian forces by late July. “This was a reckless and misinformed act,” he said. “And unfortunately, the only people they’ve hurt are Ukrainians defending their country.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
TRUMP EFFECT: Summer road trips appear to be safe from a big spike in gasoline prices. The national average price of gasoline has hovered around $3.20 a gallon this week. The last time the cost for drivers was lower in late June was in 2021, when the pandemic depressed demand for the fuel.
A piece of suspected missile debris was found this morning floating in the water near the shore of the Kinneret. Israeli police marine officers and inspectors secured the area and removed the left over threat.
TRUMP ON FORDOW: The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!
Pete Hegseth on Iran: “We’re watching very closely what they do… our job is to be prepared… but the President has created the contours, the opportunity for a deal; for peace — and we got that peace, that ceasefire… because of strength.”
Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine demonstrates how GBU-57 MOPs work: “Unlike a normal surface bomb, you won’t see an impact crater because they’re designed to deeply bury and then function … All six weapons at each vent at Fordow went exactly where they were intended to go.”
Sec. of Defense Pete Hegseth: “What President Trump accomplished in NATO yesterday was game-changing and historic … 32 NATO countries committed to spending 5% of their GDP on defense on actually investing in the NATO alliance.”
A former Venezuelan spymaster who was close to the country’s late President Hugo Chávez pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug trafficking charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a Manhattan federal court. Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal was extradited from Spain in 2023 after more than a decade on the run from U.S. law enforcement, including a botched arrest in Aruba while he was serving as a diplomat representing current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. Carvajal pleaded guilty in court to all four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism, in an indictment accusing him of leading a cartel made up of senior Venezuelan military officers that attempted to “flood” the U.S. with cocaine in cahoots with leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia. In a letter this week to defense counsel, prosecutors said they believe federal sentencing guidelines call for the 65-year-old Carvajal to serve a mandatory minimum of 50 years in prison. Nicknamed “El Pollo,” Spanish for “the chicken,” Carvajal advised Chávez for more than a decade. He later broke with Maduro, Chávez’s handpicked successor, and threw his support behind the U.S.-backed political opposition — in dramatic fashion. In a recording made from an undisclosed location, Carvajal called on his former military cohorts to rebel a month into mass protests seeking to replace Maduro with lawmaker Juan Guaidó, whom the first Trump administration recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate leader as head of the democratically elected National Assembly. The hoped-for barracks revolt never materialized, and Carvajal fled to Spain. In 2021 he was captured hiding out in a Madrid apartment after he defied a Spanish extradition order and disappeared. Carvajal’s straight-up guilty plea, without any promise of leniency, could be part of a gamble to win credit down the line for cooperating with U.S. efforts against a top foreign adversary that sits atop the world’s largest petroleum reserves. Although Carvajal has been out of power for years, his backers say he can provide potentially valuable insights on the inner workings of the spread of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua into the U.S. and spying activities of the Maduro-allied governments of Cuba, Russia, China and Iran. He may also be angling for Trump’s attention with information about voting technology company Smartmatic. One of Carvajal’s deputies was a major player in Venezuela’s electoral authority when the company was getting off the ground. Florida-based Smartmatic says its global business was decimated when Fox News aired false claims by Trump allies that it helped rig the 2020 U.S. election. One of the company’s Venezuelan founders was later charged in the U.S. in a bribery case involving its work in the Philippines. Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer in Latin America who oversaw commandos that hunted al-Qaida, sent a public letter this week to Trump urging the Justice Department to delay the start of Carvajal’s trial so officials can debrief the former spymaster. “He’s no angel, he’s a very bad man,” Berntsen said in an interview. “But we need to defend democracy.” Carvajal’s attorney, Robert Feitel, said prosecutors announced in court this month that they never extended a plea offer to his client or sought to meet with him. “I think that was an enormous mistake,” Feitel told The Associated Press while declining further comment. “He has information that is extraordinarily important to our national security […]
Sen. Eric Schmitt: “Just think about that feat—of being in the air for 30 hours… and execute something that precise… we accomplished that particular goal, and then immediately moved toward peace and a ceasefire. It’s pretty remarkable.”
HEGSETH: “When someone leaks something, they do it with an agenda. When you leak a portion of an intelligence assessment but just a little portion… that makes it seem like maybe the strike wasn’t effective, then you start a news cycle.”
HEGSETH: “When someone leaks something, they do it with an agenda. When you leak a portion of an intelligence assessment but just a little portion… that makes it seem like maybe the strike wasn’t effective, then you start a news cycle.”
Secretary of Defense Hegseth reads intelligence assessments that confirm the Iranian regime’s nuclear facilities have been obliterated: “Rendered the enrichment facility inoperable” “Enormous damage to Iran’s nuclear sites” “Destroyed Iran’s centrifuge enrichment program” “Destroyed”
Secretary of Defense Hegseth reads intelligence assessments that confirm the Iranian regime’s nuclear facilities have been obliterated: “Rendered the enrichment facility inoperable” “Enormous damage to Iran’s nuclear sites” “Destroyed Iran’s centrifuge enrichment program” “Destroyed”
Ayatollah Khanemei delivered a live televised speech, his first public statement since the ceasefire was declared. Unsurprisingly, Khamenei spouted lies and propaganda about Iran’s “victory” and even claimed that the Islamic Republic delivered a “harsh slap to America’s face” and “crushed the Zionist state.” He added that the US felt forced to join the war out of fear that “the Zionist regime would be totally destroyed.”
Ayatollah Khanemei delivered a live televised speech, his first public statement since the ceasefire was declared. Unsurprisingly, Khamenei spouted lies and propaganda about Iran’s “victory” and even claimed that the Islamic Republic delivered a “harsh slap to America’s face” and “crushed the Zionist state.” He added that the US felt forced to join the war out of fear that “the Zionist regime would be totally destroyed.”
MASSIVE OUTAGE: Nearly 6,500 customers in Lakewood and Jackson are without power this morning, as JCP&L continues to fail in its basic job of keep the lights on. ETA for restoration is currently 10:30 am.
MASSIVE OUTAGE: Nearly 6,500 customers in Lakewood and Jackson are without power this morning, as JCP&L continues to fail in its basic job of keep the lights on. ETA for restoration is currently 10:30 am.
One key unsettled issue stalling progress on President Donald Trump’s big bill in Congress is particularly daunting: How to cut billions from health care without harming Americans or the hospitals and others that provide care? Republicans are struggling to devise a solution to the health care problem their package has created. Already, estimates say 10.9 million more people would be without health coverage under the House-passed version of the bill. GOP senators have proposed steeper reductions, which some say go too far. “The Senate cuts in Medicaid are far deeper than the House cuts, and I think that’s problematic,” said GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. Senators have been meeting behind closed doors and with Trump administration officials as they rush to finish up the big bill ahead of the president’s Fourth of July deadline. Much of the package, with its tax breaks and bolstered border security spending, is essentially drafted. But the size and scope of healthcare cuts are among the toughest remaining issues. It’s reminiscent of the summer during Trump’s first term, in 2017, when Republicans struggled to keep their campaign promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, only to see the GOP splinter over the prospect of Americans losing health coverage. That legislation collapsed when then-Sen. John McCain famously cast a thumbs-down vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is determined to avoid that outcome, sticking to the schedule and pressing ahead with voting expected by the end of the week. “This is a good bill and it’s going to be great for our country,” Thune said Wednesday, championing its potential to unleash economic growth and put money in people’s pockets. The changes to the federal health care programs, particularly Medicaid, were always expected to become a centerpiece of the GOP package, a way to offset the costs of providing tax breaks for millions of Americans. Without action from Congress, taxes would go up next year when current tax law expires. The House-passed bill achieved some $1.5 trillion in savings overall, a large part of it coming from changes to health care. The Medicaid program has dramatically expanded in the 15 years since Obamacare became law and now serves some 80 million Americans. Republicans say that’s far too high, and they want to shrink the program back to a smaller size covering mainly poorer women and children. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans are “trying to take away healthcare from tens of millions of Americans.” Democrats are uniformly opposed to what they call the “big, ugly bill.” Much of the health care cost savings would come from new 80-hour-a-month work requirements on those who receive Medicaid benefits, even as most recipients already work. But another provision, the so-called provider tax that almost all the states impose to some degree on hospitals and others that serve Medicaid patients, is drawing particular concern for potential cuts to rural hospitals. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said several senators spoke up Wednesday during a private meeting indicating they were not yet ready to start voting. “That’ll depend if we land the plane on rural hospitals,” he said. States impose the taxes as a way to help fund Medicaid, largely by boosting the reimbursements they receive from the federal government. Critics decry the system as a type of “laundering” […]
One key unsettled issue stalling progress on President Donald Trump’s big bill in Congress is particularly daunting: How to cut billions from health care without harming Americans or the hospitals and others that provide care? Republicans are struggling to devise a solution to the health care problem their package has created. Already, estimates say 10.9 million more people would be without health coverage under the House-passed version of the bill. GOP senators have proposed steeper reductions, which some say go too far. “The Senate cuts in Medicaid are far deeper than the House cuts, and I think that’s problematic,” said GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. Senators have been meeting behind closed doors and with Trump administration officials as they rush to finish up the big bill ahead of the president’s Fourth of July deadline. Much of the package, with its tax breaks and bolstered border security spending, is essentially drafted. But the size and scope of healthcare cuts are among the toughest remaining issues. It’s reminiscent of the summer during Trump’s first term, in 2017, when Republicans struggled to keep their campaign promise to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, only to see the GOP splinter over the prospect of Americans losing health coverage. That legislation collapsed when then-Sen. John McCain famously cast a thumbs-down vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is determined to avoid that outcome, sticking to the schedule and pressing ahead with voting expected by the end of the week. “This is a good bill and it’s going to be great for our country,” Thune said Wednesday, championing its potential to unleash economic growth and put money in people’s pockets. The changes to the federal health care programs, particularly Medicaid, were always expected to become a centerpiece of the GOP package, a way to offset the costs of providing tax breaks for millions of Americans. Without action from Congress, taxes would go up next year when current tax law expires. The House-passed bill achieved some $1.5 trillion in savings overall, a large part of it coming from changes to health care. The Medicaid program has dramatically expanded in the 15 years since Obamacare became law and now serves some 80 million Americans. Republicans say that’s far too high, and they want to shrink the program back to a smaller size covering mainly poorer women and children. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans are “trying to take away healthcare from tens of millions of Americans.” Democrats are uniformly opposed to what they call the “big, ugly bill.” Much of the health care cost savings would come from new 80-hour-a-month work requirements on those who receive Medicaid benefits, even as most recipients already work. But another provision, the so-called provider tax that almost all the states impose to some degree on hospitals and others that serve Medicaid patients, is drawing particular concern for potential cuts to rural hospitals. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said several senators spoke up Wednesday during a private meeting indicating they were not yet ready to start voting. “That’ll depend if we land the plane on rural hospitals,” he said. States impose the taxes as a way to help fund Medicaid, largely by boosting the reimbursements they receive from the federal government. Critics decry the system as a type of “laundering” […]
