Category: Middle East

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has joined the advisory board of Ukraine’s leading defense company, renowned for its long-range drones capable of striking targets deep inside Russia, as a corruption investigation continues.
In an effort to enhance its international reputation, Fire Point is establishing a new factory in Denmark and bringing prominent industry figures on board. It also aims to expand its operations to produce battle-tested cruise missiles, with plans to more than double its current capacity.
However, public scrutiny remains intense during an ongoing corruption investigation. Fire Point’s executives insist they have nothing to hide and are operating under strict martial law protocols, even commissioning an independent audit to appease investigators. Critics, however, question the company’s opaque origins and the monopoly of its contracts with the Defense Ministry, and point to alleged links to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s notorious associate Tymur Mindich,..

First responders continued to search Saturday along the Central Coast of California for a five-year-old girl who was swept out to sea the previous afternoon, as inclement weather continues to hammer the Golden State.
Just before 1 p.m. Friday, waves estimated to reach 15 to 20 feet high washed the young girl and her parents into the chilly Pacific waters off Garrapata State Beach in Monterey County, according to the sheriff’s office.
The mother was able to get to shore safely on her own, while the girl’s father was rescued by an off-duty State Parks lifeguard, according to law enforcement officials. He was then taken to a nearby hospital and later pronounced dead. The woman remains in stable condition with mild hypothermia.
Officials began searching Friday for the missing child, pausing their operations later that night due to weather and poor visibility conditions. The search resumed Saturday morning, featuring personnel from the sheriff’s office, California State Parks, Cal Fire, an..

The man suspected of smashing up the office of New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor Alina Habba and destroying her belongings has been arrested, officials said.
Keith Michael Lisa is accused of ransacking Habba’s office and trying to confront her, according to the FBI, which previously offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect.
Habba, formerly President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and now serving as Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, celebrated the arrest Saturday and praised Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“We got him,” Habba said in a post on X. “This [Department of Justice under [Bondi] and our federal partners will not tolerate any acts of intimidation or violence toward law enforcement.”
Habba also thanked the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Marshals Service for their role in capturing a suspect. “Now justice will handle him,” she added.
open image in galleryKeith Michael Lisa is suspected of smashing up Alina Habba’s office and..

The Trump administration is rolling back tariffs on a wide range of agricultural and grocery items including coffee, tropical fruit, spices, and beef, the White House announced Friday.
The president has signed an executive order exempting these goods from the “reciprocal” tariffs he put on most U.S. trading partners earlier this year.
The White House said the move followed “substantial progress” in trade negotiations with foreign nations, while reflecting “current domestic demand for certain products, and current domestic capacity to produce certain products.”
The tariff announcement also comes amid political pressure on the president from voters concerned about continued inflation at the supermarket.
President Trump has insisted affordability questions are a Democratic “con job” and prices on “everything” are “way down,” though this is not true.
open image in galleryThe Trump administration has rolled back tariffs on more than 100 food items including beef and coffee, as the White Ho..

An immigrant who was arrested after a Milwaukee judge allegedly helped him dodge federal agents has been deported.
Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, pleaded guilty in September to illegally reentering the United States after he reached a deal with prosecutors. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security tweeted Friday afternoon that he has now been deported.
The tweet did not say whether he was transported back to his native Mexico or some other destination. The Associated Press sent an email message to his attorney, Martin Pruhs, seeking more details but he did not immediately respond.
Flores-Ruiz is at the center of a case against that could end with Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan in prison.
According to court documents, Flores-Ruiz left his home near Michoacan, Mexico, at age 18 in 2013 and sneaked into the United States. He was apprehended and deported immediately after crossing the border, but reentered the country a few days later, making his way to Milwaukee where he worked in resta..

The makers of Cape Cod potato chips were hit with a potential class action lawsuit last month alleging the brand falsely claims its snacks are free of artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives.
The suit, filed in New York federal court on October 23, comes from shopper Rozaliya Ripa, who claims she bought the kettle-cooked chips “numerous times” under false pretenses, including during an August trip to a Brooklyn Stop & Shop store.
Had Ripa “known the claims were false and misleading, she would not have purchased the Products or would have only been willing to purchase the Products at a lesser price,” the suit claims.
The lawsuit alleges that Cape Cod chips contain citric acid, an ingredient that is “no longer commercially available” in its natural form and is made synthetically by using “industrial chemicals to render the ingredient from mold.”
Campbell’s Company, which has owned Cape Cod since 2018, declined to comment on the claims in the pending litigation.
open image in gall..

As many as one in five Americans say they want to leave the U.S., with young women driving the trend, a new survey has found.
Polling by Gallup shows that 40 percent of women aged 15 to 44 said they would like to leave the country and move abroad permanently if they could. The figure is four times greater than it was 10 years ago.
A big spike in those expressing the desire to move out of the U.S. was first reported by the pollster in 2016, the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency and before Donald Trump’s first term in office.
That year, Gallup surveyed the U.S. in June and July, after both parties’ presumptive nominees were set for the November election, which Trump went on to win over Hillary Clinton.
However, the pollster noted that the desire to move was not entirely partisan, as the wish to leave continued to climb even after Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
open image in galleryPolling by Gallup shows that 40 percent of women aged 15 to 44 said they would like to le..

Leer en EspañolAll 14 victims of Tuesday afternoon’s horrific UPS plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky, have now been named by authorities.
Three flight crew members, a local business owner, and a grandfather and his granddaughter who were “in the wrong place, at the wrong time” were among the dead following the November 4 crash, the deadliest in the company’s history.
The victims include were named as Captain Dana Diamond, 62; Captain Richard Wartenberg, 57; First Officer Lee Truitt, 45; Angela Anderson, 45; Carlos Fernandez, 52; Trinadette Chavez, 37; Tony Crain, 65; John Loucks, 52; John Spray, 45; Matthew Sweets, 37; Ella Petty Whorton, 31; Megan Washburn, 35; Louisnes Fedon, 47; and his 3-year-old granddaughter Kimberly Asa.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a press conference identifying the victims that there are not believed to be any other victims of the shocking incident at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport.
“Our city feels the full weight of this unimagina..

CloseTrump says deal to end shutdown is very goodDemocrats on the House Oversight Committee released email exchanges between Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and author Michael Wolff discussing Donald Trump.
In one email, apparently sent by Epstein to Maxwell, the convicted sex offender wrote: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is [T]rump..” A victim “spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned, police chief. etc. im 75% there,” Esptein added.
In response, Maxwell wrote: “I have been thinking about that…”
Trump has repeatedly emphasized that their friendship dissolved in the early 2000s and has called the renewed interest in the Epstein files a “hoax” cooked up by the Democrats.
Trump did not send or receive any of the emails and has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The Independent has requested comment from the White House. He has said publicly that he had a falling out with Epstein because the disgraced financier “stole” young wom..