Iran and Sweden have agreed to release two Swedish nationals, including a European official held in Tehran for over two years, in exchange for an Iranian convicted of war crimes over the mass killing of Iranian prisoners in 1988.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson tweeted Saturday that Swedish citizens Johan Floderus and Saeed Azizi were “released after being imprisoned without reason by Iran.”
“The Swedish government has worked intensively for them to be released,” he continued. “Today, they will land on Swedish soil and be reunited with their families and loved ones. Welcome home!”
An Iranian official confirmed the release of Hamid Nouri, writing on social media that he would arrive in Iran in the coming hours and saying that he had been held “illegally” in Sweden.
The freed prisoners were transferred from Tehran and Stockholm to Oman, which mediated the deal, on Saturday ahead of their return to their respective countries, Oman’s Foreign Ministry wrote on social media.
Nouri was arrested in Sweden in 2019 and later convicted of war crimes over the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988, under the principle of universal jurisdiction, a legal principle that some crimes are so grave that territorial restraints on prosecutions shouldn’t apply. Nouri was the first Iranian to be tried and convicted using that principle.
He was given a life sentence in 2022, in what Amnesty International described at the time as “an unequivocal, and long overdue, message to the Iranian authorities that those responsible for crimes against humanity in Iran will not escape justice.”
Human rights groups accused Iran’s late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month, of a role in the same killings. Amnesty International said Raisi was part of “death commission” that, on Khomeini’s orders, “forcibly disappeared” and executed thousands of dissidents in prisons near Tehran in 1988.
Floderus, a 33-year-old Swedish national and official working for the European Union, was arrested as he prepared to leave Iran after a private tourist trip with friends in April 2022. The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, called for his immediate release late last year, arguing that Floderus was “arbitrarily detained in Iran.”
Azizi, whose case was not as high profile as the other prisoners involved in the swap, was arrested in November 2023, according to the Swedish prime minister. The activist news agency HRANA reported in March that Azizi has cancer and had been sentenced to five years in prison.
“Iran has made these Swedes pawns in a cynical negotiation game with the aim of getting the Iranian citizen Hamid Nouri released from Sweden,” Kristersson said, according to the Associated Press. “It has been clear all along that this operation would require difficult decisions, now the government has made those decisions.”
Borrell on Saturday welcomed Floderus and Azizi’s release and pledged to “continue to work” to free other E.U. citizens held in Iran.
Agnes Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International and former U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said in December that another Swedish national, Ahmadreza Djalali, was “at risk of execution in retaliation” for Sweden’s conviction of Hamid Nouri.
Last year, the United States and Iran freed 10 people in a prisoner swap. Five Americans, including dual national Siamak Namazi, who had been detained in Iran for almost eight years, were released, while the U.S. government freed five Iranians and unblocked the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds.
Other foreign and dual nationals remain imprisoned in Iran, including U.S. residents, with activists and relatives arguing that many are being held on spurious charges for diplomatic leverage.
(c) Washington Post
El Al has announced the end of its discount program for baggage containing donations, which was introduced after the October 7 massacre. The program, which offered a significantly reduced rate of $50 per bag, will revert to its normal policy of $200 per bag starting June 15. According to El Al’s head of corporate communications, Shira Kesselgross, the decision was made due to the resumption of other cargo transport options and a decrease in demand for donations. “We understood there was a major national effort, and we were the only ones still offering service to the United States,” Kesselgross said. “There were a lot of donations at first, but, baruch hashem, the army managed to stand on its own two feet and started supplying itself. We saw demand drop dramatically, so we returned to our normal policy.” El Al has delivered tens of thousands of bags under the program, which was initially introduced to support the military’s efforts during a time of widespread shortages. However, the airline says that the need for donations has decreased as the military’s purchasing has caught up. Charities and civilian volunteers collecting donations in the United States and Israel have expressed mixed reactions to the decision. While some acknowledge that the flood of donations has slowed over time, others argue that there is still a significant need for equipment, particularly among combat soldiers. “If we suddenly see a new military need because of a major new military campaign in one arena or another, we are prepared to return to an emergency discount program,” Kesselgross added. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on social media Wednesday night for his weak response to Hezbollah’s heavy rocket fire on northern Israel and for excluding Ben Gvir from wartime decision-making.
Referring to the 215 rockets Hezbollah launched at Israel on Wednesday following the killing of a senior commander by the Israel Defense Forces, Ben Gvir praised the military’s action but wrote on X that “hundreds of rockets cannot be answered with surgical actions.”
Ben Gvir again urged a more forceful stance against Hezbollah in Lebanon, claiming that Netanyahu was now “out of excuses” for avoiding a full-scale war with the group. He stated, “You are the minister, and you cannot even hide behind [Benny] Gantz and [Gadi] Eisenkot anymore.”
The centrist National Unity party of Gantz and Eisenkot joined the government in an “emergency” role soon after the war in Gaza started with Hamas’s October 7 mass attack. This agreement led to the creation of a small war cabinet consisting of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Gantz.
Eisenkot, like Gantz a former IDF chief of staff, participated in the cabinet as an observer.
Since the emergency government was formed, Ben Gvir has complained about his faction’s exclusion from the war cabinet. He has publicly issued a series of stringent demands, including stopping all humanitarian aid to Gaza and invading Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah entirely. He has called National Unity’s potential exit from the coalition a “big opportunity.”
On Wednesday evening, Netanyahu held a security meeting with top officials to discuss the northern escalation.
“There is no doubt that the prime minister’s obscene habit of excluding me from security meetings ‘proved itself’ on October 7,” Ben Gvir wrote sarcastically on X, alluding to his belief that Hamas and Hezbollah have not been dealt with harshly enough.
Ben Gvir has consistently advocated for war with Hezbollah since it began its near-daily attacks on Israel on October 8, claiming solidarity with Hamas, which is at war with Israel in Gaza.
He has also asserted since October 7 that had his approach been used against Hamas, the group would not have launched its attack, in which approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
{Matzav.com Israel}
Two armed men believed to be Venezuelan migrants carjacked an off-duty NYPD officer in Harlem on Friday night, law enforcement sources reported. The suspects, identified as Jomar Crespo, 21, and Jose Rivera, 20, allegedly approached the officer while he was sitting in his personal vehicle around 11:30 p.m. at West 146 Street and Bradhurst Avenue. The men, who had tattoos associated with a Venezuelan gang, drew their weapons and demanded the officer’s keys. One of the suspects knocked the officer’s gun out of his hand, and they sped off in the officer’s 2020 BMW. The vehicle was later found empty less than a mile away; the officer’s iPad, which was inside the car, was used to track it down. Police recovered two guns, including a fully automatic pistol with a Glock switch, a weapon not commonly found in New York City. The suspects, who allegedly provided fake names, were charged with multiple crimes, including robbery, grand theft auto, and possession of a machine gun. This incident marks the second time in a month that an attack on the NYPD has been linked to migrants. Earlier in June, a 19-year-old migrant connected to a Venezuelan gang opened fire on two police officers, leaving them wounded. The suspect, Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, allegedly told police he was recruited by a violent Venezuelan gang in New York City and got distinctive tattoos to show allegiance. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
A critical technological glitch in the elite SIGINT force Unit 8200’s system occurred on the night of October 6, just hours before the devastating October 7th attack. According to Channel 12 News, the fault was identified, and specialized soldiers were urgently called in from home to address the issue. The timeline of events is disputed, with a senior military intelligence official claiming that soldiers were summoned immediately, while another intelligence source stated that they arrived only after 3:00 AM. Either way, The system was finally restored to operation at 5:00 AM, just an hour and a half before the attack began. However, by the time it resumed extracting real-time information and reconstructing previous data, the attack had already commenced. The commander of Unit 8200 said that information about the fault was conveyed to top officials, including the Head of Military Intelligence, the Chief of Staff, and the director of the ISA. However, a senior intelligence official claimed that he did not receive a report indicating that the system had ever been offline. The IDF released a statement regarding the report, saying, “The IDF is investigating the events of October 7 and the preceding circumstances. The claims presented in the report are being checked as part of the investigations. Upon completion, the findings will be presented to the public transparently.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
The pier anchored to the Gaza coast for purposes of aid delivery will again be relocated temporarily, U.S. Central Command said on Friday evening.
“Today, due to expected high seas, the temporary pier will be removed from its anchored position in Gaza and towed back to Ashdod, Israel,” CENTCOM stated. “The safety of our service members is a top priority and temporarily relocating the pier will prevent structural damage caused by the heightened sea state.”
“The decision to temporarily relocate the pier is not made lightly but is necessary to ensure the temporary pier can continue to deliver aid in the future,” it said. “After the period of expected high seas, the pier will be rapidly re-anchored to the coast of Gaza and resume delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Some 7.7 million pounds of aid have arrived via the pier since May 17, CENTCOM said.
The pier was removed after it broke, and pieces reportedly floated to shore. After its repair, it was re-anchored to the shore.
{Matzav.com}
Eight Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed early Shabbos morning during an operation in Tel Sultan in Rafah. Details were announced after families of the deceased were notified.
The only one of the fallen whose name has been released thus far is Cpt. Wassem Mahmoud. The 23-year-old deputy company commander in the Combat Engineering Corps’ 601st Battalion was from the Druze town of Beit Hann in northern Israel.
According to IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari, the incident occurred when one of the vehicles of a convoy exploded, killing Mahmoud and the other seven soldiers in the “Namer” armored personnel carrier.
The deadly blast, which Hagari said is under investigation, was apparently caused by an improvised explosive device or by an anti-tank missile.
Prime Minister Netanyahu released a statement Motzei Shabbos following the incident: “Citizens of Israel, today we paid a heart-rending price in our just war in defense of our homeland,” adding that, “our hearts are shattered before this terrible loss. The entire people of Israel embraces the dear families in their most difficult hour of grief.” I stand by our brave fighters and commanders, who are imbued with the sacred mission to defeat our enemies and return our hostages.”
Netanyahu stated that, “despite the heavy and unsettling price, we must cling to the goals of the war: The destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the return of all of our hostages, making certain that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to Israel and the return of our residents securely to their homes in both the north and the south.
“We are in the midst of a very difficult war. The war is being conducted on several fronts, including the international front. We are ready for many additional challenges. It is at this time that we must show our people’s strength of spirit, thanks to which we have overcome all of our enemies. So it will be this time as well.”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant similarly released a statement adding: “The pain that comes with such loss is immense. My heart and my thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the fallen. I stand with the entire nation of Israel in remembering and honoring the heroes who fell while defending their people and their homeland.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
A new survey by the Palestinian Center for Survey Research, headed by Dr. Khalil Shikaki, indicates that 66 percent support the October 7 attack on Israel, with half of the participants believing Hamas will regain control of the Gaza Strip after the conflict.
An overwhelming 96% of those surveyed denied the massacre in the Gaza envelope, asserting that Hamas terrorists did not commit atrocities against Israeli civilians on October 7.
Additionally, 73% feel that Hamas was justified in initiating the attack, and 79% of respondents believe that Hamas will emerge victorious in the war, the highest level of confidence recorded since the war’s onset.
The survey further reveals that half of Gaza’s residents anticipate a Hamas victory and foresee the group resuming power in the Gaza Strip after the war.
In the event of Palestinian Authority elections, Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, currently imprisoned for the murder of Jews, is predicted to win a majority. Should the elections be a contest between Barghouti and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Haniyeh is expected to secure around 60% of the votes.
Conversely, in a matchup between Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh, Haniyeh is projected to receive 43% of the vote, with Abbas garnering only 11%. For Barghouti versus Haniyeh, the figures are 44% for Barghouti and 29% for Haniyeh.
Barghouti, a 64-year-old Fatah member, is serving five consecutive life sentences and an additional 40 years in prison, handed down by an Israeli court for attacks that resulted in the deaths of five Israelis and numerous injuries.
The survey also shows that 60 percent of respondents favor dissolving the Palestinian Authority, and 89 percent wish for PA Chairman Abbas to resign. Moreover, 51 percent believe Hamas is the best choice to lead the Palestinian Arabs, while only 16 percent back Fatah.
{Matzav.com Israel}
Dozens of world leaders converged on a Swiss resort Saturday to discuss how to bring peace to war-ravaged Ukraine, though any hopes of a real breakthrough were muted by the absence of Russia. More than two years into the war, the combatants remain as far apart as they’ve ever been, with Kyiv sticking to its demands that Russia leave all Ukrainian territory it has seized and Moscow pressing on with its grinding offensive that has already taken large swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine. Despite Russia’s absence from the conference at the Bürgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that one measure of the two-day event’s success was “bringing back to the world the idea that joint efforts can stop war and establish a just peace.” Attendees faced a tricky balancing act, with many chastising Russia for breaking international law while hedging their positions to leave the door open for Moscow to join future peace talks that might bring about an end to the conflict one day. “Here, there are representatives from Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the Pacific, North America and religious leaders,” Zelenskyy said. “Now, there is no Russia here. Why? Because if Russia was interested in peace, there would be no war.” “We must decide together what a just peace means for the world and how it can be achieved in a truly lasting way,” he said. “At the first peace summit, we must determine how to achieve a just peace, so that at the second, we can already settle on a real end to the war.” About half of the roughly 100 delegations were led by heads of state and government. Analysts said turnout would be a key indicator about how much pull Ukraine and its staunch Western backers have with the broader international community. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday sought to cast a shadow over the Swiss-Ukrainian initiative for the conference. Some countries such as India, Turkey and Saudi Arabia that have retained ties, at times lucrative, with Moscow — unlike Western powers that have sanctioned Russia over the war — were also on hand. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, told the conference that credible peace talks will need Russia’s participation and require “difficult compromise.” Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, acknowledged the mistrust between Russia and Ukraine, saying “each side regards the other party’s steps (in floating proposals) as an extension of broader war effort.” “Excellencies, I must also note that this summit could have been more results-oriented if the other party to the conflict — Russia — was present in the room,” he added. Entering the venue, President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania, a NATO member country that has been one of the most stalwart supporters of fellow former Soviet republic Ukraine, said Russian troops must leave Ukraine, and that Moscow must be held accountable for crimes there and pay reparations for the war damage. “Right now it seems unrealistic, but I think we have to stay united, and if international society will push the Russian Federation, everything is possible,” he told The Associated Press. “I think the situation is very clear: Ukraine has to seek territorial integrity.” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, representing the United States while President Joe Biden attended a fundraiser […]
President Joe Biden’s performance at a summit of international leaders has apparently got people concerned, according to a report, with a diplomatic source telling The Sun: “It’s the worst he has ever been.”
The 81-year-old attended the annual G7 gathering in Italy’s southern Puglia region alongside representatives from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.K.
The Sun claimed another source said that while Biden had periods of sharpness in meetings, he’d also appeared to “lose focus” in meetings. The Murdoch tabloid’s report comes after a member of the White House communications team went on the offensive about a video which several outlets claimed showed Biden wandering away from his international colleagues Thursday during a skydiving display.
White House senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates claimed that the New York Post had used an “artificially narrow frame” to hide that Biden had just seen the demonstration and was congratulating one of the skydivers rather than just mindlessly walking away from the other leaders. Read more at The Sun.
The U.S. military unleashed a wave of attacks targeting radar sites operated by Yemen’s Houthi rebels after one merchant sailor went missing and the vessel he was on caught fire in the latest Houthi strike on shipping in the crucial Red Sea corridor, authorities said Saturday. The attacks come as the U.S. Navy faces the most intense combat it has seen since World War II in trying to counter the Houthi campaign — attacks the rebels say are meant to halt the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. However, the Iranian-backed rebel assaults often see the Houthis target ships and sailors who have nothing to do with the war while traffic remains halved through a corridor vital for cargo and energy shipments between Asia, Europe and the Mideast. U.S. strikes destroyed seven radars within Houthi-controlled territory, the military’s Central Command said. It did not elaborate on how the sites were destroyed and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press. “These radars allow the Houthis to target maritime vessels and endanger commercial shipping,” Central Command said in a statement. The U.S. separately destroyed two bomb-laden drone boats in the Red Sea, as well as a drone launched by the Houthis over the waterway, it said. The Houthis, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014, did not acknowledge the strikes, nor any military losses. That’s been typical since the U.S. began launching airstrikes targeting the rebels. The Central Command said one commercial sailor from the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk cargo carrier Tutor remained missing after an attack Wednesday by the Houthis that used a bomb-carrying drone boat to strike the vessel. “The crew abandoned ship and were rescued by USS Philippine Sea and partner forces,” Central Command said. The “Tutor remains in the Red Sea and is slowly taking on water.” The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said Saturday afternoon that the Tutor was “still on fire and sinking.” The missing sailor is Filipino, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency, which cited Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac. He said most of the Tutor’s 22 mariners were from the Philippines. “We’re trying to account for the particular seafarer in the ship and are praying that we could find him,” he said Friday night. The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, killed three sailors, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say. The war in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians there, according to Gaza health officials, while hundreds of others have been killed in Israeli operations in the West Bank. It began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostage. “The Houthis claim to be acting on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and yet they are targeting and threatening the lives of third-country nationals who have nothing to do with the conflict in Gaza,” Central Command said. “The ongoing threat to international commerce caused by the Houthis in fact makes it harder to deliver badly needed assistance to the people of Yemen as well as […]
Even though the median U.S. CEO pay package last year was nearly 200 times more than a worker in the middle of their company pay scales, Elon Musk’s record-setting Tesla compensation dwarfs them by comparison. Tesla shareholders on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favor of restoring Musk’s 10-year pay plan, valued by the company in April at $44.9 billion. It was worth more early in the year, but Tesla’s stock value has fallen about 25% since then. The all-stock package, approved by the board and shareholders in 2018, rewards Musk for hitting milestones that include raising Tesla’s market value, pretax income and revenue. It had been tossed out by a Delaware judge in January who said the process for approving it was “deeply flawed.” The court ruled that Musk controlled the company’s board, and shareholders weren’t fully informed. But the company said Musk deserves the pay because he turned Tesla into the top-selling electric vehicle maker in the world, increasing its market value by billions. Even with the reapproval vote, Musk won’t get access to the stock options just yet. Tesla is expected to ask the judge to revisit her decision in light of the vote, and if she doesn’t, the company probably will appeal the ruling to Delaware’s Supreme Court. The whole process could take months. No matter the outcome, Musk’s package — the largest award to a CEO of a U.S. public company — is far above what’s been granted to other chief executives. Here’s how the package compares: WITH THE MEDIAN CEO PAY The median pay package for an S&P 500 U.S. CEO last year was $16.3 million, according to data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar. If you multiply that by 10 to get $163 million for a decade of work, Musk’s earnings still would be 275 times greater. In her January ruling that struck down the package, Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick wrote that Musk’s package, then worth about $56 billion, was 250 times larger than the median peer CEO’s pay plan. WITH INDIVIDUAL CEOS The top earner in the AP’s survey was Hock Tan, CEO of artificial intelligence company Broadcom Inc. His package, mostly consisting of stock awards, was valued at about $162 million, when given to Tan at the start of fiscal 2023. Thanks to a surging stock price, Broadcom in March valued Tan’s pay package, plus older options he hadn’t yet cashed in, at $767.7 million. That’s an amount easily eclipsed by Musk’s potential haul of 304 million shares worth almost $45 billion. Other CEOs at the top of AP’s survey are William Lansing of Fair Isaac Corp, ($66.3 million); Tim Cook of Apple Inc. ($63.2 million); Hamid Moghadam of Prologis Inc. ($50.9 million); and Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix ($49.8 million). Technically, Musk got no compensation last year because he didn’t get any stock options. But he stands to get even richer if his pay package goes through. WITH TESLA WORKERS It’s difficult to calculate what Musk’s annual pay would have been last year. The company says he got nothing. But if his compensation package makes it through the courts, his pay will be in the billions. According to the company’s proxy filing this year, the median annual pay of a non-CEO Tesla employee last year was $45,811. (AP)
A federal judge on Friday ordered the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones′ personal assets but dismissed his company’s separate bankruptcy case, leaving the immediate future of his Infowars media platform uncertain as he owes $1.5 billion for his false claims that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax. Judge Christopher Lopez approved converting Jones’ proposed personal bankruptcy reorganization to a liquidation. But Lopez threw out the case of his company, Austin, Texas-based Free Speech Systems, after failed attempts by Jones to reach an agreement with Sandy Hook families on his proposals to reorganize and keep operating the company while paying them millions of dollars. It wasn’t immediately clear what will happen in the coming weeks to Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, which Jones built into a multimillion-dollar moneymaker over the past 25 years by selling dietary supplements and other products. But both Jones and lawyers for the Sandy Hook families said they expect Infowars to cease operating at some point because of the huge debt. A trustee appointed Friday in Jones’ personal bankruptcy case to oversee the liquidation now has control over his assets, including Infowars, according to lawyers for Sandy Hook families. Dismissal of Free Speech Systems’ case means the families can now move immediately to collect on the $1.5 billion in state courts in Texas and Connecticut where they won defamation lawsuits against Jones and the company. It’s possible Infowars will continue operating during the collection efforts, which could include selling off the company’s assets. Jones, who smiled as the judge dismissed the company’s case, called in to Infowars after the court hearing and predicted more battles in the state courts. “The bizarre political attempts to hijack the operation have failed,” he said, and added that he would find another way to broadcast his shows if he loses Infowars. Outside the courthouse, he railed about the families not accepting his reorganization proposals and alleged that they were being used by political groups in a conspiracy to silence him. He said he would try to maximize revenues at Infowars to make money for creditors and then wind down the business in a way that takes care of its 44 employees. “This is about taking me off the air,” Jones said. “Understand that what you’ve seen in the corporate media about me, or what I said about Sandy Hook or any of this, has no bearing on reality.” Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, called Infowars “soon-to-be defunct” as his clients move to collect on the debt in state courts. He said the families will also pursue Jones’ future earnings. “Today is a good day,” Mattei said in a text message after the hearing. “Alex Jones has lost ownership of Infowars, the corrupt business he has used for years to attack the Connecticut families and so many others. … Alex Jones is neither a martyr nor a victim. He is the perpetrator of the worst defamation in American history.” Lopez had been asked to either convert Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy reorganization to a liquidation or dismiss the case. He said his sole focus was what would be best for the company and its creditors. He also said Free Speech Systems’ case appeared to be one of the longest running of its kind in […]
The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, the rapid-fire gun accessories used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, in a ruling that threw firearms back into the nation’s political spotlight. The high court’s conservative majority found that the Trump administration overstepped when it changed course from predecessors and banned bump stocks, which allow a rate of fire comparable to machine guns. The decision came after a gunman in Las Vegas attacked a country music festival with semiautomatic rifles equipped with the accessories. The gunman fired more than 1,000 rounds into the crowd in 11 minutes, sending thousands of people fleeing in terror as hundreds were wounded and dozens killed. The ruling thrust guns back into the center of the political conversation with an unusual twist as Democrats decried the reversal of a GOP administration’s action and many Republicans backed the ruling. The 6-3 majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas found the Justice Department was wrong to declare that bump stocks transformed semiautomatic rifles into illegal machine guns because, he wrote, each trigger depression in rapid succession still only releases one shot. The ruling reinforced the limits of executive reach and two justices — conservative Samuel Alito and liberal Sonia Sotomayor — separately highlighted how action in Congress could potentially provide a more lasting policy, if there was political will to act in a bipartisan fashion. Originally, imposing a ban through regulation rather than legislation during Donald Trump’s presidency took pressure off Republicans to act following the massacre and another mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Prospects for passing gun restrictions in the current divided Congress are dim. President Joe Biden, who supports gun restrictions, called on Congress to reinstate the ban imposed under his political foe. Trump’s campaign team meanwhile, expressed respect for the ruling before quickly pivoting to his endorsement by the National Rifle Association. As Trump courts gun owners while running to retake the presidency, he has appeared to play down his own administration’s actions on bump stocks, telling NRA members in February that “nothing happened” on guns during his presidency despite “great pressure.” He told the group that if he is elected again, “No one will lay a finger on your firearms.” The 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas was carried out by a high-stakes gambler who killed himself, leaving his exact motive a mystery. A total of 60 people were killed in the shooting, including Christiana Duarte, whose family called Friday’s ruling tragic. “The ruling is really just another way of inviting people to have another mass shooting,” said Danette Meyers, a family friend and spokesperson. “It’s unfortunate that they have to relive this again. They’re really unhappy.” Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, the former county sheriff in Las Vegas who has refused to sign multiple gun control measures the Democrat-controlled Legislature has sent to his desk, said in a statement Friday, “While I have always been a supporter of the Second Amendment, I have been a vocal opponent of bump stocks since my time in law enforcement, and I’m disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision today.” The opinion comes after the same Supreme Court conservative supermajority handed down a landmark decision expanding gun rights in 2022. The high court is also expected […]
Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that the House will go to court to enforce the subpoena against Attorney General Merrick Garland for access to President Joe Biden’s special counsel audio interview, hours after the Justice Department refused to prosecute Republicans’ contempt of Congress charge. “It is sadly predictable that the Biden Administration’s Justice Department will not prosecute Garland for defying congressional subpoenas even though the department aggressively prosecuted Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro for the same thing,” Johnson said in a statement. “This is yet another example of the two-tiered system of justice brought to us by the Biden Administration.” In a letter to Johnson earlier Friday, a Justice Department official cited the agency’s “longstanding position and uniform practice” to not prosecute officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege. The Democratic president last month asserted executive privilege to block the release of the audio, which the White House says Republicans want only for political purposes. Republicans moved forward with the contempt effort anyway, voting Wednesday to punish Garland for refusing to provide the recording. Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte noted that the Justice Department under presidents of both political parties has declined to prosecute in similar circumstances when there has been a claim of executive privilege. Accordingly, the department “will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Uriarte said in the letter to Johnson. The letter did not specify who in the Justice Department made the decision. Republicans were incensed when special counsel Robert Hur declined to prosecute Biden over his handling of classified documents and quickly opened an investigation. GOP lawmakers — led by Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer — sent a subpoena for audio of Hur’s interviews with Biden, but the Justice Department only turned over some of the records, leaving out audio of the interview with the president. Republicans have accused the White House of suppressing the tape because they say the president is afraid to have voters hear it during an election year. A spokesperson for Jordan criticized the Justice Department’s move Friday, saying, “The rule of law for thee, but not for me.” A transcript of the Hur interview showed Biden struggling to recall some dates and occasionally confusing some details — something longtime aides say he’s done for years in both public and private — but otherwise showing deep recall in other areas. Biden and his aides are particularly sensitive to questions about his age. At 81, he’s the oldest-ever president, and he is currently seeking another four-year term. The attorney general has said the Justice Department has gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the lawmakers about Hur’s investigation. However, Garland has said releasing the audio could jeopardize future sensitive investigations because witnesses might be less likely to cooperate if they know their interviews might become public. In a letter last month detailing Biden’s decision to assert executive privilege, White House counsel Ed Siskel accused Republicans of seeking the recordings so they can “chop them up” and distort them to attack the president. Executive privilege gives presidents the right to keep information from the courts, Congress and the public to protect the confidentiality of decision-making, though it can be challenged […]
After days of intense flooding in Florida, that state and many others are bracing for an intense heat wave, while the Pacific Northwest will experience unseasonably cold weather and there is a potential for late-season snow in the Rocky Mountains early next week. The chaotic weather map includes the possibility of severe thunderstorms developing in between hot and cold fronts. Forecasters said the colliding fronts could lead to areas of flash flooding between eastern Nebraska and northern Wisconsin on Saturday night, as well as strong storms across parts of eastern Montana into North and South Dakota. Meanwhile a plume of tropical moisture will reach the central Gulf Coast during the next couple of days, with heavy rain expected to start Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters said the threat of heavy rains in Florida continues to dissipate, but some thunderstorms could cause local flooding given the already saturated soil. Some areas between Miami and Fort Lauderdale were left underwater in recent days as storms dumped up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) in southern parts of the state. The damaging no-name storm system coincided with the early June start of hurricane season, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity. Across much of the southern parts of the country, temperatures were rising Saturday. In Atlanta, where highs were forecast to near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) both weekend days, city officials opened a cooling center to provide relief. The city also postponed a “Family and Friends Field Day” due to the heat. And in the west Texas city of El Paso, Saturday highs were expected to approach 105 F (40.6 C), and the National Weather Service issued a heat advisory through Monday morning for the region. The city has opened five cooling centers that will operate daily until further notice. The National Weather Service said temperatures in Phoenix, where an excessive heat warning was in effect, were forecast to reach 113 F (45 C) on Saturday afternoon. That would be short of the record for June 15 — 115 F (46 C) — set in 2021. Though Arizona is entering its three-month monsoon season, when a shift in wind patterns typically pulls moisture in from the tropical coast of Mexico, no rain is forecast for most of the coming week. “No chances of rain across the state,” National Weather Service meteorologist Ted Whittock said, while noting that there is a 30% chance of showers in southeastern Arizona next Friday. In Tennessee, tens of thousands of revelers at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival braved a hot, sunny weekend to take in more than 150 performances at the 700-acre farm campground and concert venue that hosts the annual event. While medical crews treated various heat-related conditions, some fans constructed elaborate canopy and tent combinations for shade. Others had their sunscreen confiscated upon entry because of restrictions on full-size bottles and aerosol cans, The Tennessean reported. Temperatures in the Mid-Atlantic and New England will likely peak in the mid- to upper 90s next week, which is “nothing to sneeze at even in the middle of the summer, let alone this early in the summer,” National Weather Service meteorologist William Churchill said. The high humidity […]
Israel Police on Motzei Shabbos published footage of the moments that Israeli security forces broke into the apartment where hostage Noa Argamani was being held. “Noa, everything is all right. We’re taking you home,” one of the officers is heard saying. “You’re safe. We’re taking you to the car.” The video continues in the car and the officers are heard saying: “We’re from Yamam and the Shin Bet. We’re taking you home. We’re very excited that you’re here and we’re proud of you.” Noa is then heard saying: “I’m excited. I’m simply very afraid of the way back.” The Yamam officers later said that Noa’s first question was: “Is my mother still alive?” (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
An IDF soldier critically wounded on Monday in Rafah died of his wounds on Shabbos, the IDF announced on Motzei Shabbos. He was named as Sgt. Yair Roitman, H’Yd, 19, from Karnei Shomron. He served in the Givati Brigade. He left behind his parents and five siblings. Roitman was injured in an explosion in a booby-trapped building in Rafah that left four soldiers dead and six wounded. His death increases the death toll of soldiers in the ground operation in Gaza to 308. (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
A terrible tragedy occurred in Israel on Shabbos morning when eight IDF soldiers were killed after an engineering armored personnel carrier (APC) exploded in Rafah, the IDF announced on Motzei Shabbos. The disaster occurred at about 5:00 a.m. when an engineering unit attached to a Givati Brigade was returning from a night operation to the building where they would be spending the night. Suddenly, an explosion occurred, setting the fifth or sixth APC traveling in a convoy on fire. It is still unclear if the explosive device was hidden underground or attached to the APC. The initial explosion may have sparked secondary explosions from the explosives carried by the APC. The APC burned for an extended period and rescuers were unable to approach it for about two hours. Afterward, it was dragged to a secure area under Israeli control within the Gaza Strip. The APC was very badly damaged, indicating a powerful charge. Only one of the soldier’s names has been published so far: Capt. Wassem Mahmoud, 23, from the Druze town of Beit Jann. He served as a deputy company commander in the 601st Engineering Battalion. (YWN’s Jerusalem desk is keeping you updated after tzeis ha’Shabbos in Israel)
As residents and businesses in South Florida assessed the damage from this week’s historic rainfall and floods, Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration pushed back against assertions that the storm had anything to do with climate change.
A number of records were set as the storm known as Invest 90L inundated roads from Sarasota to West Palm Beach.
The Republican governor declared a state of emergency for South Florida, but at a news briefing Friday he downplayed the idea that the storm was unusual. He said there have been similar events “going back decades.”
“This clearly is not unprecedented,” he said. “I think the difference is, you compare 50 to 100 years ago to now, there’s just a lot more that’s been developed, so there’s a lot more effects that this type of event can have.”
His communications team also referred to the rain as typical summer rainfall. Christina Pushaw, the governor’s former press secretary, who is now an analyst with the state, wrote on X: “Welcome to the rainy season. South Florida is in the tropics. There will be thunderstorms for the next 4-5 months.”
No storm-related fatalities were reported, but some communities experienced waist-deep flooding and residents needed to be rescued.
The brouhaha over how to characterize the storm came a month after DeSantis signed a bill that removes most references to climate change in state law. The legislation, which is set to take effect July 1, eliminates climate change as a priority in making energy policy decisions.
Florida Democrats, attacked DeSantis’s team for diminishing the storms just as hurricane season gets underway. The season started June 1 and forecasters predict it could be one of the most active on record. They also noted that DeSantis signed a state budget this week that vetoes about $205 million in stormwater, wastewater and sewer projects across the state.
“Living in Florida, what we’re seeing now is not just the same kind of weather that’s been happening for a thousand years,” said state Rep. Daryl Campbell, a Democrat whose district is in Broward County. “We see the impacts of climate change on our day-to-day lives, and we see a governor who vetoes what the legislature passed unanimously to help deal with it.”
DeSantis and his administration responded to critics who say the state should be doing more to address climate change.
“What amazes me about the current discussion on Florida’s weather is that the left seems to believe that @GovRonDeSantis can control how much it rains, but he just refuses to use his power to do so,” DeSantis press secretary Jeremy Redfern wrote on X.
The recent storm arrived 14 months after another “rain bomb” hit South Florida, dropping 22.5 inches on Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in one day. Last year’s storm knocked the city’s main hospital offline for all but emergency procedures, shorted electrical equipment at City Hall and left thousands of travelers stranded.
When DeSantis vetoed storm-related projects this week, he said local governments can find the money instead from the state Department of Environmental Regulation. He also pointed to his resilience budget, which includes more than $1.2 billion for projects such as $17.8 million to improve “technology infrastructure” at the state’s new emergency operations center.
DeSantis has pledged to focus on energy affordability rather than climate change. The law he signed in May bans offshore wind turbines and weakens regulations on natural gas pipelines.
“We don’t want our energy policy driven by climate ideology,” DeSantis said Friday. “When that happens, people pay more and the energy is less reliable.”
(c) Washington Post
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