Category: Europe

A former Wesleyan University soccer player who was found not guilty by reason of insanity after brutally killing his younger brother in a gruesome attack has died in an apparent suicide inside his prison cell, according to reports.
Matthew Hertgen, 31, was found dead in his cell at the Mercer County Jail in New Jersey on May 8, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to NJ.com. An official cause of death has not been released, and an autopsy report is pending.
The death came less than two months after a Mercer County judge ruled Hertgen was not criminally responsible for the February 2025 killing of his 26-year-old brother, Joseph Hertgen, at the brothers’ Princeton apartment.
Investigators said Hertgen stabbed and beat his younger brother to death with knives and golf clubs before mutilating the body, ripping out one of Joseph’s eyeballs and eating it. He also set their cat on fire during the attack.
Hertgen then called 911 to report a body inside the home, opened the door for..

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used his West Point commencement address to criticize former leaders, accusing them of turning the armed forces into a “woke Princeton” and weakening the American spirit through DEI policies.
In the rain on Saturday at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York, Hegseth told graduating cadets that past leadership and reforms had weakened the military, accusing previous officials of turning the academy into what he described as a misguided academic environment.
“We saw woke and weak leaders trying to make West Point look like woke Princeton, which happens to be my long-lost and lost alma mater,” Hegseth said.
“They tried to introduce diversity and inclusion studies. They hire professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls, but no more,” he said to a muted response from the crowd, arguing that West Point is “special” and “above politics.”
“The single dumbest phrase in military history was peddled in our army only a few short yea..

Unexploded drone removed from high-rise apartment in Ukraine after Russia strikeVolodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is preparing a strike against ​Ukraine using a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile.
Citing intelligence from Ukraine, the US and Europe, Zelensky’s warning came a day after Vladimir Putin ordered his military to prepare options for retaliation against Ukraine for a drone strike on a student dorm in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, which Ukraine's denied responsibility for.
Zelensky said in an X post that did not mention the ​drone ⁠attack: “We are seeing signs ⁠of preparation for a combined ​strike ⁠on Ukrainian territory, including Kyiv, involving various types of weaponry. The specified intermediate-range weapons could be used in such a strike.”
Russia has already attacked ‌Ukraine twice with the Oreshnik, a missile which Vladimir Putin has boasted is impossible to intercept because of its reported velocity ‌of more than 10 times the spee..

A bipartisan group of senators is pushing back on delays by the Department of Defense in sending $600 million in security aid to Ukraine and other allies in eastern Europe, dispatching a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday that calls for the funding to be disbursed.
Friction has grown between Congress and the Trump administration in recent weeks as lawmakers from both sides of the aisle push for updates on what has happened with $400 million in Ukraine and $200 million more for defense programs in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The money was allocated by Congress last year.
Even Republican lawmakers have aired their frustration as President Donald Trump's administration disengages with Ukraine and other European allies.
“Ukraine has persistently and bravely repelled a four-year Russian onslaught, but its military needs and deserves continued American support,” said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley in the joint letter.
Republican Sens…

One year after Floyd Mayweather Jr. claimed he had “100 percent” trust in business advisor and convicted felon Jona Rechnitz, the champion prizefighter is suing him for allegedly stealing at least $175 million – the proceeds from sales of real estate, jewelry, and a Gulfstream G-IV private jet.
In a complaint filed Thursday evening in Manhattan County Supreme Court, Mayweather claims Rechnitz, a New York City real estate developer who in 2016 was brought up on federal bribery charges and later sentenced to five months in prison and five months of house arrest, fleeced him amid a “multi-year fraudulent scheme” carried out with the help of two associates.
“As they say, the gloves are off,” Mayweather’s attorney Leo Jacobs told The Independent. “The complaint speaks for itself.”
The lawsuit follows news of a court ruling ordering Mayweather to pay nearly $1 million in back child support, plus $33,000 a month, to a dancer at his Las Vegas strip club with whom he fathered a four-year-old da..

The Trump administration’s $1.776 billion compensation fund for alleged “victims” of “weaponization” appears to violate and contradict a mandate set out by ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi last year, according to legal experts.
Recipients of the fund, announced by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche last week as part of a settlement after President Donald Trump abandoned his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, will likely remain a secret.
While Blanche — who, like Bondi is a former Trump personal attorney — has stated that Trump and his family are not eligible for the fund, the president’s donors, allies, and supporters have not been ruled out.
Now, former Justice Department officials have pointed to a February 2025 directive issued by Bondi that appears to contradict the compensation fund because it could see major payouts awarded to people or groups who are not involved in an underlying lawsuit, according to The New York Times.
The memo, titled “Reinstating the Prohibitions on Im..

Michelle Petix raised her two daughters in the rural haven of Steamboat Springs, in northwestern Colorado, where they spent their childhoods skiing freely with friends or swimming in the river on balmy summer days.
“We lived off the grid, plowed our own road, built our home board by board,” Petix, 57, said of her family’s idyllic life in Routt County. “Tourism and ranching are truly a unique mixed vibe. We need a community to survive out in the rural areas.”
Tourism is the main driver of the local economy, powered by tens of thousands of visitors who come to “Ski Town USA” to hit the slopes, fly fish on local rivers, or attend the professional rodeo series held at the base of Colorado’s oldest public ski area, in operation since 1915.
Managing the influx of tourists while preserving the area’s ranching culture and history is a delicate balance. But Petix and others in the community fear that balance could soon be upended by a powerful real estate developer’s proposal to open a private..

Brothers to the Rescue, a group founded by Cuban exiles, is at the center of the U.S. Justice Department's decision to seek an indictment against Cuban leader Raúl Castro, a move reviving one of the lowest points in the two countries' bitter decades-long relationship.
The indictment is connected to Castro’s alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two planes operated by the Miami-based exile group. Castro was defense minister at the time, making him the nation's highest authority after his brother Fidel.
What is Brothers to the Rescue?Brothers to the Rescue began operating in 1980 during 125,000 Cubans' unexpected emigration to the United States. Founded by emigré José Basulto, it aimed to help Cuban refugees in the Florida straits by dropping supplies from small planes and alerting the U.S. Coast Guard.
The months-long crisis began after some Cubans protested travel restrictions imposed by President Fidel Castro's communist government and Castro opened the port o..

Several financial firms that profited from well-timed oil trades, made shortly before President Donald Trump announced new developments in the Iran war, are being looked at by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to a new report.
Moments before Trump announced he would postpone bombing Iran’s infrastructure on March 23, more than $800 millon worth of oil futures were exchanged – with at least three firms profiting from more than $15 million combined, according to data and records seen by the Wall Street Journal.
A similar pattern has emerged over the last few months, with a volume of trades made on April 7, hours before Trump announced a temporary ceasefire with Iran; April 17, minutes before Iran’s Foreign Minister announced the Strait of Hormuz was open; and April 21, minutes before Trump announced he would extend the ceasefire with Iran.
It’s led the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an independent agency that regulates futures, swaps and bets, to open an inquiry ..

Vice president JD Vance has said that Hunter Biden is “welcome to apply” for money from a special $1.8 billion fund to help the victims of “lawfare.”
“This is about compensating Americans for the lawfare they experienced under the last administration,” Vance told reporters, speaking at a White House press briefing Tuesday. “Republicans can apply for it, Democrats can apply for it… If Hunter Biden wants to apply for this particular fund, he’s welcome to.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the $1.776 billion compensation fund Monday, which is aimed to financially help individuals who believe they have been targeted for investigation or prosecution.
The fund is being set up as part of a settlement after Trump abandoned his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS.
Blanche vowed that the “machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American, and it is this Department’s intention to make right the wrongs that were previously done while ensuring this never happens ..