(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Law enforcement authorities in Texas arrested an Afghan national on charges of making a terrorist threat. He became the second individual from Afghanistan recently accused of similar crimes.
Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, brought into the U.S. under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, was arrested Tuesday after recording himself on TikTok indicating he was building a bomb.
He allegedly wanted the bomb to explode in the Fort Worth area, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which lodged a detainer after his arrest.
The Biden administration admitted Alokozay as a green card holder on Sept. 7, 2022, putting him on a fast track to citizenship, which permanent residents can seek after five years.
Headline USA confirmed he was booked into the Tarrant County Jail by the Texas Department of Public Safety and is being held on no bond.
Fox News first reported on Alokozay’s arrest.
His arrest came just days after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, another Afghan national, shot two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., in what the DOJ has described as a terrorist attack.
Like Alokozay, Lakanwal arrived in the U.S. under the Biden administration’s controversial Operation Allies Welcome in September 2021.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the latest arrest by saying the “magnitude of the national security crisis Joe Biden unleashed on our country over the span of four years cannot be overstated.”
The magnitude of the national security crisis Joe Biden unleashed on our country over the span of four years cannot be overstated. President Trump has directed his entire team to continue rooting out this evil within our borders. https://t.co/QdsTLFXauC
The development came shortly after President Donald Trump announced his administration would halt all asylum petitions until further notice.
Trump also ordered a review of all green card holders from 19 countries “of concern.” These countries include Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.
(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A Washington, D.C. attack that left one West Virginia National Guardsman dead and another critically injured has fueled rampant speculation about a domestic color revolution underway in the United States.
Ties between the alleged perpetrator of the Thanksgiving-eve assault and a George Soros-funded non-governmental organization are likely to raise even more questions over the underlying motives.
NEW: The Afghan terrorist Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who ambushed the National Guard in Washington, D.C., was housed in Bellingham with his wife and 5 children through the nonprofit World Relief Western Washington.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal — the Afghan national accused of killing specialist Sarah Beckstrom and injuring Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe — is known to have worked as part of a CIA-backed army unit prior to his evacuation in 2021.
According to Just the News, his Zero Unit militia struck a secret deal with the intel agency to guarantee refugee status following the Biden administration’s botched Afghan withdrawal, which allowed the Taliban to regain control of the country.
Lakanwal was ultimately resettled in Bellingham, Washington, with assistance from the Soros-backed World Relief NGO, which also received millions from government agencies like USAID.
🇺🇸🇦🇫 SOROS-LINKED NGO "WORLD RELIEF" HELPED RESETTLE THE AFGHAN SHOOTER… WITH U.S. TAX DOLLARS
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the guy who shot 2 National Guardsmen near the White House, was resettled in Bellingham, Washington, through World Relief.
Some on social media noted that Lakanwal’s trip across the country and ability to obtain a handgun upon landing in D.C. — which has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation — necessarily have been carefully planned in advance.
Megan Basham, a Daily Wire reporter who has investigated the pipeline of Soros-backed “evangelical” charities, said faith-based NGOs were being used regularly to help flood the system with illegal immigrants whose “refugee” eligibility was poorly vetted, if at all.
Here is what we know about the evangelical NGO @WorldRelief’s involvement with the Afghan terrorist, It dovetails with my book, Shepherds for Sale, which covers World Relief’s funding and activities.
More alarming, however, than the prospect that Lakanwal was a poorly vetted Islamic extremist may be the possibility that he was carefully vetted — and selected to do the CIA’s dirty work.
As investigative journalist Eric Daugherty observed, Soros also has his fingerprints on the “script” that Democrat lawmakers and intel operatives were devising in order to promote sedition among military service-members.
The open-borders oligarch bankrolled Win Without War, the organization that installed a controversial billboard outside of Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C.
🚨 BREAKING: It's been revealed that a nonprofit linked to George Soros is fomenting sedition within the military around the same time a "script" went out to Democrat members of Congress urging rebellion within the ranks against President Trump.
And Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., a member of the so-called Seditious Six, conveniently predicted just a few weeks beforehand that a violent incident like the one Wednesday might escalate clashes between the Trump administration and left-wing radicals, triggering a greater military response.
“By my estimation, we’re about two weeks away from a bloody incident that spirals out of control,” Slotkin said in the Oct. 29 speech.
🚨 MUST WATCH VIDEO: SLOTKIN'S PREDICTION
OCTOBER 29TH: Former CIA analyst and current U.S. Senator from Michigan, Elissa Slotkin, says, "we're about two weeks away from a bloody incident that spirals outta control," when commenting about federal officers and national guardsmen… https://t.co/AqxQPCaBpjpic.twitter.com/boyK6Lemcc
The eerie connections between the shooting and the other actions that have united the left-wing “resistance” and intelligence community in a bid to undermine military hierarchy have all the trappings of a classic psy-op campaign according to several social-media analysts.
The Senator video telling service members to disobey orders was part of the same op.
This lie is one more step.
Not sure who is quarterbacking.
But it’s al part of a revolutionary insurgent movement.
Tony Seruga, a former CIA/NSA contractor turned whistleblower, wrote on Thursday that terrorist sleeper cells may also be working with Antifa-aligned groups in the hopes of triggering a massive riot that, despite its appearances, was far from organic.
“The cover story for this Intelligence-Industrial Complex operation to embed sleeper cells all throughout America is that the ‘Biden–Harris’ regime is somehow innocent in their gross ignorance and ineptitude, but this is simply whitewashing,” he said.
COLOR REVOLUTION ALERT: The CIA Is Behind The National Guard Shooting Near the White House
—2nd Smartest Guy in the World
Yesterday, an Afghan national opened fire on two West Virginia National Guard members, leaving both in critical condition, with one of them having passed… pic.twitter.com/Uht5THeyqY
Indeed, a picture of Slotkin’s “Seditious Six” co-conspirator, Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., at her wedding to Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan, likely features many of the key players working behind the scenes. Among them: Former CIA Director William Burns, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
Tony Blinken organised the 2020 Biden laptop CIA interference letter. Bill Burns is next to him in this picture
Jake Sullivan, the groom, was Biden’s National Security Advisor and effectively ran “Biden”
It remains unclear what, exactly, the deep-state operatives hope to achieve with the color revolution. While it is possible that it is simply a power play, the Trump administration’s efforts to investigate the “Arctic Frost” scandal and to force Ukraine to the negotiating table in its war with Russia are also likely motivators.
Both threaten to expose highly sensitive CIA operations that may have been adverse to U.S. interests, if not altogether illegal.
The developments also follow landslide wins by two former intelligence officials turned Democrat politicians, New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill and Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, suggesting an emboldened deep state may be looking to create a distraction ahead of the 2028 midterm elections.
Whatever the reason, experts urged Trump officials and others to take seriously the threat that recent events foretold.
“People need to understand that if this operation succeeds, things will move quickly – Trump would be removed from the scene almost immediately,” wrote Jennica Pounds, a social-media influencer, who posts under the account @DataRepublican. “Elite defection isn’t an early warning sign of an overthrow; it’s the final stage before one.”
You should know that this is an open call for others to carry out one of the steps involved in executing a color revolution. See Step 6: defections within military, intelligence, and law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/qcHSykxnd6
(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) A newly released recruitment video from Fort Bragg’s Psychological Operations Group added more uncertainty amid anxiety over whether left-wing seditionists might be plotting a military coup against the Trump administration.
“There is another force applied in combat that we generally don’t think of as a weapon of war. That weapon is words,” says the video, as initially reported by Military.com.
“Words are weapons,” it adds. “… This is psychological warfare.”
The video, featuring ghostly cartoon images, bears similarity to past recruitment campaigns by the psyop unit stationed at the Fayetteville, N.C. Army base.
Yet, while past videos may have been unsettling during the gaslighting frenzy of the Biden administration, the latest one comes at a particularly delicate time, with many experts on the Right raising alarm over a possible domestic color revolution.
A billboard from the George Soros-backed NGO Win Without War reportedly urged Army servicemembers to go AWOL or worse. It directed would-be traitors to the site NotWhatYouSignedUpFor.org, which encouraged them to use encryption services while secretly signaling their disloyalty to a trio of activist “legal” groups.
Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom and a former State Department official, pointed out that the billboard was not simply appealing to rank-and-file cadets but to those responsible for helping wage color revolutions to topple foreign governments.
Worth noting Fayetteville North Carolina is the home of Fort Bragg, which itself is the home of US military psychological operations and the psychological warfare center, which itself is the home of covert US military-organized street protests and riots in foreign countries. https://t.co/BwzezKwQHKpic.twitter.com/nLGafo0Cfw
The billboard’s appearance itself fueled concerns in the aftermath of the “Seditious Six” scandal and a recent attack on National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C.
Six Democrat lawmakers, all of whom have military or intelligence backgrounds, released a video telling military members it was OK to refuse orders that they deemed to be “illegal.”
The suspected terrorist in the D.C. shooting, an Afghan national, also had ties to both the CIA and a Soros-funded NGO.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him atx.com/realbensellers.
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
It’s unclear if the declaration means that the US will impose a no-fly zone on Venezuela, which would be an act of war. Such a step or any military strikes on Venezuela would be illegal without congressional authorization, per the US Constitution.
The order came after the president said that he may “very soon” expand the bombing campaign against alleged drug-running boats in the region to strikes on Venezuelan territory.
The New York Timesreported on Friday that Trump spoke to Maduro by phone last week and discussed the possibility of meeting in person, but it doesn’t appear that the conversation did anything to slow the US military buildup in the region and push toward the US launching a regime change war.
The Times report said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been leading the campaign against Venezuela, joined Maduro and Trump in the phone call. They spoke a few days before Rubio’s State Department declared the Cartel of the Suns, or Cartel de los Soles, a group that doesn’t actually exist, a “Foreign Terrorist Organization.”
The US claims that Maduro is the leader of the Cartel of the Suns, a term first used in the early 1990s to describe Venezuelan generals with sun insignias on their uniforms who were involved in cocaine trafficking and were actually working with the CIA at the time.
Today, the Cartel of the Suns is used to describe a network of Venezuelan officials allegedly involved in the drug trade, but it doesn’t exist as a structured organization. The Trump administration appears set to use the designation as a pretext to launch an illegal war, one that Americans overwhelmingly don’t want.
(Money Metals News Service) Mike Maharrey opens the conversation with Jorge Jraissati, president of the Economic Inclusion Group, by asking about his background and why he cares so deeply about financial freedom.
In this Money Metals exclusive interview with Jorge Jraissati, they speak on the very real rise in debanking, how vague regulations weaponize banks, threats from CBDCs, and why gold, silver, and policy reform are vital to protect financial freedom.
(Interview Starts Around 5:53 Mark)
From Venezuela’s Collapse To A New Mission
Jorge explains that he grew up in Venezuela under socialism. He watched a relatively rich, stable country slide into hyperinflation, capital controls, and a full-blown humanitarian crisis in just a few years.
Electricity would go out for hours every day. Basic goods like meat, food, and even running water became hard to find. Venezuela went from being the richest country in Latin America to a place where basic survival was a struggle.
That experience convinced Jorge that economic liberty is not optional. When you lose financial freedom, you quickly lose political freedom and basic security.
Now in the United States, he founded the Economic Inclusion Group to focus on a problem he sees rising quietly but rapidly: debanking.
What Debanking Actually Looks Like
Jorge describes debanking very simply: you wake up, open your mail, and find a letter from your bank telling you your account is being closed.
You’re told to move your money quickly. If you run a business, losing a bank account can mean bankruptcy in days.
This often happens to people who have banked with the same institution for 10, 15, or even 20 years. They’ve had no issues, no warnings, and no clear problems.
In the last two years alone, at least 12,000 people in the United States have formally complained about being debanked. Jorge believes the real number is much higher, since many victims stay silent out of fear of reputational damage.
Who Gets Cut Off – And Why
Debanking hits people and organizations that banks now see as “too risky” or “too controversial.”
That can include nonprofits involved in politics, groups defending free speech, or organizations advancing any contentious political viewpoint. It can also include activists working on foreign issues or human-rights causes.
But it’s not just politics. Businesses in “controversial” industries are increasingly at risk. Companies in the crypto space, firms doing international trade with regions like Latin America or the Middle East, and even humanitarian groups sending aid to places such as Ukraine, Venezuela, or the broader Middle East, can find themselves suddenly dropped.
The core problem, Jorge argues, is regulation. Laws like the Bank Secrecy Act, combined with layers of anti–money laundering rules, have become vague, contradictory, and highly subjective. They invite politicization and over-compliance.
Banks now factor in “reputational risk” when deciding who to serve. That gives them every incentive to dump anyone who could possibly attract regulatory scrutiny – even if they’ve done nothing wrong.
Weaponized Rules And The Chilling Effect
Jorge says there are two main ways the system gets weaponized.
First, regulators and officials can directly pressure banks to target disfavored industries or individuals. The rules are vague enough that they can be used as tools of political punishment.
Second, banks act preemptively. They don’t wait for a phone call from Washington. To avoid fines, investigations, and headlines, they purge anyone who might be a problem.
That creates a chilling effect across the entire economy. People self-censor how they do business. Organizations avoid certain causes. Banks over-comply to protect themselves.
And in all of this, there is almost no due process. Customers are rarely told what rule they supposedly violated. Often they’re told nothing at all.
In the current year, he and his team have met with more than 80 congressional offices, as well as officials at the White House. There is real interest because high-profile figures, including Donald Trump and his business organization, have reportedly experienced debanking themselves.
Congress has floated bills that would tell banks they cannot close accounts for political reasons. But Jorge says these proposals don’t get to the heart of the issue.
The real problem, he argues, is the structure of the Bank Secrecy Act and related compliance rules. The system needs deep reform to make financial compliance more objective, simpler, more transparent, and bound by due process.
Right now, banks are not allowed to tell customers why they were debanked under U.S. anti–money laundering laws. That guarantees a lack of transparency.
On top of that, nobody is systematically tracking debanking. There is no comprehensive national data, and banks don’t report these events in a structured way. Many victims fear speaking publicly because of what donors, investors, or employees might think.
The Economic Inclusion Group is pushing for legal reforms, better data collection, and stronger privacy protections to restore financial freedom.
Real-World Cases: From Crypto CEOs To Truckers
Maharrey brings up a recent example that underscores Jorge’s concerns.
Jack Mallers, the CEO of Strike, a well-known crypto company, reported that JPMorgan Chase abruptly closed his bank accounts. When he asked why, the response was, “We aren’t allowed to tell you.”
Jorge confirms this is standard practice. The law is written so that banks cannot explain their internal risk assessments, supposedly to avoid tipping off potential criminals. In practice, innocent people are left in the dark.
He also points to the Canadian trucker protests against COVID policies. In that case, authorities didn’t just freeze individual bank accounts. They also froze donations raised through GoFundMe.
Millions of dollars – Jorge recalls public figures citing numbers between roughly $7 million and $12 million – were raised for the truckers. That money never reached the intended recipients.
Beyond straightforward account closures, Jorge says he has seen repeated cases where banks freeze funds entirely. Money can be locked up for a week, a month, or even longer, with no clear timeline, no explanation, and no real recourse.
What Individuals And Businesses Can Do
Maharrey asks what people can do to protect themselves while Washington grinds slowly through potential reforms.
Jorge says there is no one-size-fits-all answer. The right approach depends on what business you’re in, how public your profile is, how much liquidity you need, and how much risk you can tolerate.
If you operate in “high-risk” sectors, such as international trade with sensitive regions or politically sensitive activism, you may need to invest in professional help. That can mean compliance consultants, lawyers, and advisers who track shifting regulations.
But he warns against relying only on lawyers. Attorneys are trained to eliminate risk, not to run viable businesses. If you try to erase every ounce of risk, you often erase profitability too.
Jorge encourages people and organizations to seek out groups like the Economic Inclusion Group that specialize in these issues, know the unwritten rules, and can offer more practical, targeted guidance.
For ordinary citizens, he emphasizes advocacy. Contact your members of Congress. Raise awareness. Share stories. The biggest obstacle, he says, is that debanking is still viewed as a niche issue affecting only a few unusual businesses.
The more real-world cases they can gather, the stronger their policy proposals will be – and the harder they’ll be to ignore in Washington.
Hard Assets As A Backstop
Maharrey then pivots to a question close to the Money Metals audience: what role do hard assets like gold and silver play in this environment?
Jorge is clear that diversification into hard assets makes sense for many people. He notes that gold, silver, and even Bitcoin are being used by many as a hedge against both financial repression and systemic risk.
He views gold not only as a tool for protection but also as a solid investment choice in today’s climate, given its performance and risk profile.
Some people try to protect themselves by moving funds across different countries and banks. Jorge says that it is often impractical and complicated, especially under today’s regulatory regime.
Holding at least some wealth in physical form and outside the most vulnerable parts of the banking system can be a rational form of self-defense.
Central Bank Digital Currency: Supercharging The Problem
When asked about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), Jorge is blunt: CBDCs are a step in the wrong direction.
He sees no convincing use case for CBDCs in terms of financial stability or financial inclusion. Instead, he believes the main “benefit” is political control.
A CBDC would magnify all the worst features of the current system. Financial privacy would erode even further. Debanking and sanctions could become automated and instant.
The remaining frictions and procedural hurdles that still slow down overreach would vanish. Jorge warns of a dystopian future where your digital wallet is tied to algorithms that instantly punish “controversial” speech or behavior by throttling or cutting off your money.
He contrasts this vision with the core American tradition of skepticism toward concentrated government power. A healthy system, he argues, requires competing centers of authority, strong checks and balances, and robust protections for individual liberty – especially financial liberty.
Money, he says, is effectively speech. It’s how you care for your family, support causes, and live a free life. If the state controls your money at a granular, programmable level, everything else becomes fragile.
The Cashless Squeeze And The Unbanked
Maharrey notes that more and more businesses won’t accept cash at all. He saw multiple “no cash accepted” signs during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.
Jorge has seen the same thing from an even more troubling angle. He invited activists from countries like Nicaragua to Congress – people who had been debanked globally because of their political work.
These guests had no bank accounts and no cards. When they tried to buy coffee in congressional cafeterias that don’t accept cash, they simply couldn’t purchase anything.
That’s one small example of a much broader problem. The U.S. Treasury has reported that roughly 10% of Americans are unbanked – they have no bank account at all.
As more establishments go cashless, these millions of people are being functionally excluded from normal economic life. For the unbanked and debanked, the combination of financial surveillance and cashless commerce becomes a trap.
How To Connect With The Economic Inclusion Group
As the conversation wraps up, Maharrey gives Jorge a chance to explain how people can learn more or get involved.
The organization’s website, EconInclusion.com, is another hub for information, research, and ways to participate. The Economic Inclusion Group operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States.
Jorge emphasizes that they believe they are the only organization systematically focused on solving the debanking problem. They welcome people who want to share their stories, volunteer, help with research, raise awareness, or support the work financially through tax-deductible donations.
Maharrey closes by thanking Jorge for his efforts and for bringing attention to an issue many listeners may never have considered until now – and Jorge returns the thanks, wishing him and the audience a Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson shared Thursday heartfelt stories of former inmates who had their sentences commuted by President Donald Trump ahead of Thanksgiving.
In an X post, Johnson, herself a beneficiary of a Trump pardon, highlighted Anabel Valenzuela and Edward and Joe Sotelo, all of whom received harsh federal sentences for non-violent drug offenses.
Valenzuela, a Las Vegas mother of two, was slapped to 32 years in 2010 for her role in a meth trafficking and money-laundering scheme that primarily ran out of Hawaii between 2002 and 2005.
According to nonprofit Can Do Clemency, Valenzuela never once traveled to Hawaii, not even for vacation. At the time of her sentence, Valenzuela was 23, and her children were just two and three years old. They are now adults.
She previously acknowledged her role in the scheme, but criminal justice reform activists described her sentence as excessive for a first-time, non-violent offender.
“During the nearly two decades she spent behind bars, the babies she left at home grew into adults,” Johnson wrote. “Seeing this mother reunited with her sons after all these years is a Thanksgiving miracle in every sense.”
Johnson also highlighted the Sotelo brothers, who were sentenced to life in prison over drug-related offenses in the 1990s. Their sentences were the result of now-outdated sentencing guidelines.
The brothers were arrested by DEA Special Agent William Travis, who later abruptly resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct with a confidential informant and accusations of fabricating evidence for a search warrant.
While in prison, the Sotelo brothers assisted cold-case detective Manuel Reyes in solving old cases in Texas and pursued education and training.
The brothers, pardoned by Trump in August 2025, now work at a family restaurant they helped start out of prison in 2017.
Johnson said she was “deeply grateful” to see them celebrating the holiday with their 88-year-old mother after three decades apart.
“These are miracles of mercy, and each one reminds us of the extraordinary power of second chances,” she wrote. “And this year, many others made it home as well — mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters who now get to rebuild their lives and rejoin their families.”
Ed Martin, a special attorney at the DOJ, reacted to Johnson’s post, saying, “Everyone in the U.S. Pardon Office is grateful for Pardon Czar Alice Marie Johnson’s leadership and compassion.”
He added that her “remarkable life’s story is about hope and determination—something we could all use more of.”
Everyone in the U.S. Pardon Office is grateful for Pardon Czar Alice Marie Johnson’s leadership and compassion. Her remarkable life’s story is about hope and determination—something we could all use more of. ⚖️ https://t.co/vhaLZl53st
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., doubled down on his controversial demands that service members defy what he calls President Donald Trump’s “illegal” orders, even though he has failed to identify a single example.
Kelly appeared in a Tuesday interview on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, insisting he is not “backing down.”
“We said something very simple. Members of the military need to follow the law,” Kelly said of the video. “We wanted to say that we have their backs. His response? Kill them.”
Kelly’s latest remarks come as he faces investigations by the FBI and the Department of War.
🚨 BREAKING: Seditious Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly has cooked himself even FURTHER, running to Jimmy Kimmel and telling Pete Hegseth and President Trump he’ll KEEP pushing for rebellion
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Zohran Mamdani may have run for New York City mayor on a socialist platform, but one of the first bills he could sign would distribute wealth not to ordinary New Yorkers, but to the political elite.
The City Council is quietly preparing a 16 percent pay hike for members, the mayor and other elected officials, conveniently timing the bill’s signature just days after Mamdani takes office in January 2026.
Councilwoman Nantasha Williams, a Democrat from Queens, introduced the bill Tuesday to raise council salaries from $148,500 to $172,500 and the mayor’s salary from $258,000 to nearly $300,000.
The bill would also boost pay for the city comptroller, who makes $210,000, and the public advocate, an office formerly held by the embattled New York Attorney General Letitia James.
According to the New York Post, Williams’s bill is co-sponsored by 32 of the 45 Democratic members. Republicans solely hold six seats, bringing the council’s total membership to 51.
The City Council last approved a pay increase in 2016.
It is unclear whether Mamdani will sign the bill, though as a member of the New York Assembly, Mamdani voted to give himself and colleagues a pay hike in 2022.
The Post reported that Williams tried to rush the bill earlier this month but was blocked by local law preventing lame-duck council members from voting on raises.
Critics told the Post that Democrats likely hurried the bill to shield Mamdani from backlash over the optics of giving himself a raise within days of taking office.
Kalman Yeger, a Democratic state Assemblyman and former council member, said that the “only thing is I think they are worried that the mayor-elect won’t do it.”
“They are afraid if they pass it in January and he’d have to veto,” Yeger added. “How does the mayor-elect justify it, saying the working man can’t afford milk? He can’t sign off to give them a $20,000 raise.”
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) One of the top Ukrainian officials leading peace talks with Russia abruptly resigned Friday after government investigators raided his home in a massive corruption probe.
Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief aide, had been a central figure in negotiations and regularly appeared in high-level meetings with world leaders.
In fact, he was scheduled to travel to Florida to meet with Trump officials to further peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, two countries at war since 2022.
The raid was conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, two agencies independent of Zelenskyy’s government, according to the New York Post.
Zelenskyy immediately sought to downplay the search, claiming Yermak resigned to clear confusion among Ukrainians.
In a Ukrainian-language video, Zelenskyy said that he was “grateful to Andriy for always representing Ukraine’s positions on the negotiation track exactly as it should be represented.”
He clarified that he wanted “to eliminate any rumors and speculation.”
Russia is eager for Ukraine to make mistakes. We won’t make any. Our work goes on. Our struggle goes on. We have no right to fall short, no right to retreat or turn on one another. If we lose our unity, we risk losing everything – ourselves, Ukraine, and our future. We must stand… pic.twitter.com/EQ3Pu7R9Q5
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 28, 2025
Meanwhile, in an interview with the New York Post, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Olga Stefanishya claimed Yermak resigned to “cut off speculations” and that no “procedural action” followed the raid.
The Zelenskyy administration has long faced accusations of deep corruption, with Ukrainian officials admitting in interviews with U.S. media that the problem runs from the top down.
The raid targeting Yermak’s home came as members of Zelenskyy’s inner circle faced accusations of siphoning off and laundering $100 million from Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear power company, as reported by the leftist New York Times.
At the center of the scheme is Timur Mindich, co-owner of a television studio founded by Zelenskyy. Anti-corruption officials also identified Oleksiy Chernyshov, a former deputy prime minister under Zelenskyy, as having received $1.3 million.
(Headline USA) Charges against the man accused of shooting two National Guard members have been upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the soldiers died, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Friday.
Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24 were hospitalized in critical condition after the Wednesday afternoon shooting near the White House. Trump announced Thursday evening that Beckstrom had died.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said the charges against Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War, now include one count of first-degree murder, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed.
Beckstrom and Wolfe were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard as part of President Donald Trump’s crime-fighting mission that federalized the D.C. police force.
Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticized the Biden administration for enabling Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the Afghanistan War to enter the U.S.
In an interview on Fox News, Pirro said there are “many charges to come” beyond the upgraded murder charge. She said her heart goes out to the family of Beckstrom, who volunteered to serve and “ended up being shot ambush-style on the cold streets of Washington, D.C., by an individual who will now be charged with murder in the first degree.”
Pirro declined to discuss the suspect’s motive, saying officials have been working around the clock on that question. Investigators are continuing to execute warrants in the state of Washington, where Lakanwal lived, and other parts of the country, she said.
Wolfe remains in “very critical condition,” West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Friday. He ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in recognition of Beckstrom’s death.
“These two West Virginia heroes were serving our country and protecting our nation’s capital when they were maliciously attacked,” Morrisey said. “Their courage and commitment to duty represent the very best of our state.”
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.
Lakanwal has been living in Bellingham, Washington, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Seattle, with his wife and five children, said his former landlord, Kristina Widman.
Mohammad Sherzad, a neighbor of Lakanwal’s in Bellingham, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Friday that Lakanwal was polite, quiet and spoke very little English.
Sherzad said he attended the same mosque as Lakanwal and had heard from other members that Lakanwal was struggling to find work. Some of his children attended the same school as Lakanwal’s children, Sherzad said.
“He was so quiet and the kids were so polite, they were so playful. But we didn’t see anything bad about him. He was looking OK,” Sherzad said. Sherzad said Lakanwal “disappeared” about two weeks ago.
In his address to the troops Thursday, Trump said that Lakanwal “went cuckoo. I mean, he went nuts.”
People who knew Lakanwal say he served in a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before immigrating to the United States. Lakanwal worked in one of the special Zero Units in the southern province of Kandahar, according to a resident of the eastern Afghan province of Khost who identified himself as Lakanwal’s cousin. He said Lakanwal was originally from the province and that his brother had worked in the unit as well.
The cousin spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. He said Lakanwal had started out working as a security guard for the unit in 2012 and was later promoted to become a team leader and a GPS specialist. A former official from the unit, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said Lakanwal’s brother was a platoon leader.
Zero Units were paramilitary units manned by Afghans but backed by the CIA that also served in front-line fighting with CIA paramilitary officers. Activists had attributed abuses to the units. They played a key role in the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country, providing security around Kabul International Airport as the Americans and withdrew from the country.
Beckstrom had enlisted in 2023, the same year she graduated high school, and served with distinction as a military police officer with the 863rd Military Police Company, the West Virginia National Guard said in a statement.
“She exemplified leadership, dedication, and professionalism,” the statement said, adding that Beckstrom “volunteered to serve as part of Operation D.C. Safe and Beautiful, helping to ensure the safety and security of our nation’s capital.”
The president called Beckstrom an “incredible person, outstanding in every single way.”
On Wednesday night, Trump called for the reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who had entered under the Biden administration initiative that brought roughly 76,000 people to the country, many of whom had worked as interpreters and translators.
The program has faced intense scrutiny from Trump and others over allegations of gaps in the vetting process, even as advocates say there was extensive vetting and the program offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.
The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Joseph Edlow said in a statement that the agency would take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the maximum degree possible.”
