Category: Middle East

U.S. Border Patrol agents operating in Chicago have now been equipped with body cameras, a development confirmed on Monday during a court hearing addressing the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
This initiative follows a judge's order amid complaints of increasingly combative tactics and over 1,000 arrests.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis mandated that uniformed agents must activate cameras where they are available during arrests, frisks, building searches and deployments to protests.
Kyle Harvick, deputy incident commander with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, informed the judge that every Border Patrol agent involved in Operation Midway Blitz “now has a body-worn camera”.
He added that 201 Border Patrol agents are stationed in the Chicago area, with other federal agencies, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also participating in the operation.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis mandated that uniformed agents must activate cameras where ..

Hulu saw its rate of cancellations double after Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was temporarily pulled from the air, according to a new report.
Last month, ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! for about a week following comments the comedian made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
His suspension caused a wave of outcry from celebrities, politicians and others who believed pulling the show was a violation of free speech protections. Some went as far as to boycott Hulu and Disney+, streaming services of Disney, which is the parent company of ABC.
The rate of Hulu subscription cancellations spiked to 10 percent in September, up from 5 percent in August, according to data from subscription-analytics firm Antenna. Similarly, the rate of Disney subscription cancellations rose to 8 percent from 4 percent.
open image in galleryHulu saw its rate of cancellations double after Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show was temporarily pulled from the air, according to a new report (..

Israel has reaffirmed its commitment to a ceasefire in Gaza despite launching a fresh wave of strikes on the enclave and temporarily shutting off aid.
The IDF said in a statement that terrorists had fired an anti-tank missile and gunfire towards IDF troops working in Rafah on Sunday.
An Israeli military official told The Independent that Hamas had carried out “multiple attacks” against Israeli troops beyond the agreed withdrawal line in a “bold violation of the ceasefire”.
“The attacks included an RPG shot at a military force, and a sniper fire against a military force,” they added. “Both of the incidents happened in an Israeli-controlled area, east to the yellow line. This is a bold violation of the ceasefire.”
The Israeli strikes killed at least 45 people in Gaza, according to local residents and health authorities.
open image in galleryDisplaced people in Rafah, southern Gaza (AP)Hamas’s armed wing said that it remained committed to the ceasefire agreement in all of Gaza, adding tha..

CloseTrump says Tomahawks were discussed during ‘very productive’ call with PutinDonald Trump told Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Russia’s terms or risk facing destruction in an explosive meeting in Washington DC on Friday.
President Zelensky’s visit to the Oval Office allegedly turned into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Trump was said to toss aside maps of the Ukrainian frontline, urging Zelensky to surrender the Donbas region to Russia, seemingly adopting points Vladimir Putin made to Trump in their call the day before, in which he demanded that Ukraine surrender key territory.
Zelensky was said to bring Trump back to endorsing a freeze of the current front lines.
Donald Trump said he expected Ukraine to make territorial concessions in any peace agreement, and indicated that under a deal authored by the White House, Russia would likely be allowed to retain territory it has occupied since 2022.
“Well, he's gonna take..

As the chants of “No Kings” echoed through downtown Miami on Saturday, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was livestreaming from the middle of the crowd.
Miami’s second “No Kings” protest drew an estimated 4,000 attendees, according to organizers.
Among them was Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the January 6 Capitol attack before he was pardoned by Donald Trump on his first day in office. Tarrio also attended counter protests at first “No Kings” demonstrations in June.
Organizers repeatedly warned demonstrators not to engage, The Miami Heraldreported.
“Walk away from the agitator,” they said through megaphones. “Please do not engage with any outside agitators.”
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, pictured at a rally organized by the Proud Boys in Portland, Oregon, showed up in Miami at a ‘No Kings’ rally October 18Tarrio, who lives in Miami, smiled into his camera and said: “I support all these people, especially her with the bullhorn.”
Tarrio ..

Nearly 7 million demonstrators in small towns and cities across the country showed up for the “No Kings” protests to rally against Donald Trump’s presidency, according to organizers.
The president declared he was “not a king” on Fox News Friday, but that didn’t prevent millions of rally-goers in more than 2,500 locations across the U.S. protesting the second Trump administration. Saturday’s event marked the third mass mobilization since Trump reclaimed the White House last year.
The event marked one of the largest single-day nationwide demonstrations in U.S. history, surpassing the more than 5 million demonstrators who turned up to the first iteration of “No Kings” protests in June, organizers said.
“Today, millions of people showed that we, the people, will not be silenced,” Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
Protesters at rallies across the country shouted a common refrain:“Hey hey! Ho ho! Donald Trum..

The family of Prince Andrew's late sexual abuse accuser, Virginia Giuffre, is celebrating the royal relinquishing his remaining titles amid continued fallout over his ties to the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
“This is not just a victory for her, but for every single survivor of the horrific crimes perpetrated by [Jeffrey] Epstein and his co-conspirators”, family members told The New York Post in a statement.
The family has called for Andrew, who has denied all wrongdoing, including Giuffre’s allegations, to lose his title of prince next.
Earlier Friday, in a statement released by Buckingham Palace, Andrew said a decision had been reached in discussion with the King to relinquish his remaining titles, including the Duke of York, as “the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the royal family”.
Giuffre, who died by suicide earlier this year, was one of the first people to publicly call for charges against Epstein and has been an outspoken adv..

Atlanta police say they found the body of Nnakai Pratt, a six-month-old boy wrapped in a trash bag, dead from blunt force trauma to the head. His father initially claimed the baby was kidnapped during an armed robbery.
Both parents were denied bail on Friday and remained in jail after they were charged in the death of their son.
Antonio Pearce, the baby’s father, told Clayton County police on Sunday that Nnakai was taken while sitting in his car seat by two armed men who also stole $6,500 in cash and 3 pounds of marijuana.
The kidnapping was alleged to have happened in an apartment that Pearce said he was using as a stash house in Riverdale, about 11 miles south of Atlanta.
open image in galleryNnakai's body was found in the backyard of a house on Tuesday (MattGush via iStock)But late Tuesday, police found Nnakai's body in the backyard of a house, just on the other side of a fence from the apartment complex.
Clayton County Detective Chieyenne Reynolds told reporters Friday t..

Admiral Alvin Holsey, the head of the U.S. Southern Command overseeing strikes on what the Trump administration claims are Venezuelan drug boats, has stepped down after expressing concern with the attacks, according to a new report.
Over the past few weeks, Special Operations forces have launched hits on at least five boats off the Venezuelan coast in the Caribbean Sea that the White House claims were transporting drugs. A total of 27 people have been killed in the strikes.
Just this week, Trump announced a boat strike that killed six suspected drug traffickers.
“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike. No U.S. Forces were harmed. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday.
Two days later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Holsey’s early retirement from the Navy. Holsey assumed the commander role just this past November after serving as the deputy com..

A federal grand jury has indicted Donald Trump’s former national security adviser-turned-prominent critic John Bolton, marking yet another criminal prosecution of the president’s perceived political enemies.
The 18-count indictment alleges Bolton illegally sent hundreds of pages of classified national defense information to people believed to his immediate family, including information from foreign intelligence and details about covert actions from the U.S. government, among other documents labeled “top secret.”
Bolton — whose home in Bethesda, Maryland, was raided by the FBI in August — is accused of sending “diary-like entries” to people identified only as “individuals 1 and 2” — who are believed to be his wife and daughter — that he transcribed from hand-written notes containing classified material, the document says.
The 26-page document also accuses Bolton of printing out and storing sensitive material at his home.
Those emails were later hacked by a person believed to be working ..