Category: Middle East

The Department of Homeland Security recently released a holiday ad relaying a familiar message with a tinge of festive nostalgia.
Accompanied by crooner Perry Como’s Christmas classic, “Home for the Holidays,” a black-and-white montage showed people grabbing what appeared to be gifts for loved ones — stuffed animals and playing cards — before they stepped onto planes.
“This holiday season, give yourself the gift of home with the CBP Home app,” read the ad’s caption.
Since President Donald Trump returned to the White House — and implemented his mass deportation agenda — the CBP Home app has been touted by administration officials as a “dignified” way for immigrants to self-deport.
Immigrants without criminal convictions are eligible to use the app in exchange for a $1,000 “stipend,” free airfare, and avoiding encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to DHS.
open image in galleryAn immigrant from Venezuela tries to access CBP Home App. The government spends less on..

Nick Reiner, who has been charged with the murder of his parents, the director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, is reportedly on suicide watch in solitary confinement in a Los Angeles jail.
Reiner, 32, is being made to wear a blue suicide-prevention smock and is not permitted to communicate with anyone outside his counsel and jail and medical staff, a law enforcement source told People.
“While he is on suicide watch, a supervisor checks on him every 15 minutes to ensure his safety,” the source said. “He is currently struggling with mental health concerns, but he has not attempted self-harm. He remains alone in his cell and communicates very little.”
The Independent has contacted Reiner’s attorney for comment.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department, which manages Los Angeles jails, directed questions about Reiner to the LAPD, which has not responded to an Independent request for comment.
open image in galleryNick Reiner is reportedly on suicide watch and being kept in solit..

With his approval ratings at the lowest levels of his presidency and polls showing Americans believing that he has taken his expansive view of presidential power too far, President Donald Trump is headed to his Palm Beach, Florida social club to close out his year with a two-week vacation.
But before he could get away from the continued furor over the Epstein files and head off for leisure time, golf and parties on the Mar-a-Lago patio, the president had to convince voters at a Rocky Mount, North Carolina rally that whatever economic pain they are feeling nearly a year into his second term in office has absolutely nothing to do with him.
For the first 20 or so minutes after he took the stage, it wasn’t clear whether he would stick to that plan.
Trump, sounding hoarse and tired with his speech slurring at times, launched into a meandering, somnolent soliloquy that seemed more focused on recounting what he’d already told reporters several hours earlier, when he hosted pharmaceutical com..

CloseTodd Blanche says DoJ will release Epstein files Friday to meet Congressionally-imposed deadlinePresident Donald Trump did not acknowledge the release of the long-awaited Jeffrey Epstein files in a rally speech Friday night, as his administration was blasted for failing to publish the complete documents, despite the deadline being set by law.
Thousands of documents from the late convicted pedophile’s case were released by the Justice Department Friday afternoonbut officials acknowledged that the release was incomplete, prompting accusations of a cover-up.
The president ignored questions from reporters about the Epstein files on his way to the rally in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, that lasted more than an hour.
Pam Bondi’s DOJ earlier dumped a library of legal documents, paperwork and photos, which included multiple images of former President Bill Clinton lounging in a hot tub; and Epstein with a host of celebrities, including Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Richard Branson, Andrew M..

The U.S. Coast Guard has scrapped references in its new workplace harassment policy that characterized hate symbols such as swastikas and nooses as “potentially divisive” following uproar from Congress.
Last month, The Washington Post first reported that the military branch planned to quietly downgrade hate symbols to “potentially divisive,” which meant the Coast Guard may not be required to remove hateful signage even if it was reported by a service member.
The Coast Guard “wanted to strike the ‘potentially divisive’ wording from the document but was unable to do so,” according to the Post, citing two people familiar with the policy.
Following weeks of turmoil over the matter, Homeland Security Kristi Noem, whose agency oversees the Coast Guard, announced Thursday that the wording will be “completely removed from the record so no press outlet, entity or elected official may misrepresent the Coast Guard to politicize their policies and lie about their position on divisive and hate sy..

Leer en EspañolThe suspect in the shooting at Brown University last weekend has been found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire after a five-day manhunt, officials said.
“I will tell you that he took his own life tonight,” Colonel Oscar Perez, the chief of the Providence Police Department said Thursday night.
Two students were killed and nine were injured Saturday in a shooting on Brown University’s campus. Perez identified the suspect in the shooting as Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national.
Brown President Christina Paxson said Valente was a physics PhD student at the university from the Fall 2000 to Spring 2001 before taking a leave of absence and formally withdrawing in the summer of 2003.
open image in galleryThe suspect in the shooting at Brown University last weekend has been found dead in a storage facility in New Hampshire after a five-day manhunt (AP/Reba Saldanha)A satchel, two firearms and evidence “tha..

CloseZelensky says Russia is preparing for 'year of war'Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Ukraine's allies to show a united front against Russia at a crucial European Union summit on Moscow's frozen assets.
The Ukrainian president urged European leaders to secure support for Kyiv and show Russia that continuing its war is “pointless” ahead of the summit in Brussels today.
“The outcome of these meetings, the outcome for Europe, must be such that Russia feels that its desire to continue fighting next year will be pointless, because Ukraine will have support,” Zelensky said in his evening address on Wednesday.
His call comes after Vladimir Putin lashed out at European leaders, amid ongoing US-brokered peace talks.
In a bizarre rant against the West, the Russian president said: “Europe’s little pigs immediately joined in the work of the previous American administration, hoping to profit from the collapse of our country.”
Putin had previously accused Western countries of ..

CloseTrump says US was 'absolutely dead' before he turned it into 'hottest country anywhere in the world'President Donald Trump touted his accomplishments during the past 11 months as he addressed the nation, following frustration from Americans over his handling of the economy.
Trump began his address Wednesday night from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House on familiar ground— by blaming his predecessor Joe Biden.
“When I took office, inflation was the worst in 48 years, and some would say in the history of our country, which caused prices to be higher than ever before, making life unaffordable for millions and millions of Americans,” Trump said. “This happened during a Democrat administration.”
He also unveiled a “warrior dividend” for more than 1,450,000 military service members and said they would each receive $1,176. Trump claimed the checks are “already on the way.”
“Wages are up, prices are down. Our nation is strong. America is respected, and o..

ClosePresident Donald Trump calls Rob Reiner ‘a deranged person' as he doubles-down on criticism of murdered movie directorNick Reiner will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner, and his producer-photographer wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
Reiner, 32, was arrested Sunday after an investigation by the LAPD and US Marshals, hours after the bodies of his parents were found at their Brentwood estate.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the charges Tuesday afternoon, and noted that they carried a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. No decision has been made on the death penalty, he said.
Now that prosecutors have decided to file charges, Reiner is expected to appear in court.
“Once he is medically cleared, he will be brought to court to be arraigned on these charges. At that point, he will enter a plea of guilty or not guilty,” Hochman said.
The 32-year-old reportedly..

The father of the youngest victim of Australia’s Bondi Beach mass shooting gave an emotional tribute to his 10-year-old daughter, Matilda, at a vigil for victims on Tuesday December 16.