FBI Investigates Hunting Stand Near Trump’s Landing Area 

(Luis CornelioHeadline USA) Federal authorities in Miami are investigating a suspicious hunting stand discovered within direct sight line of where President Donald Trump boards and exits Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport. 

The U.S. Secret Service uncovered the stand on Sunday during advance security preparations ahead of Trump’s return to Palm Beach this weekend, agency spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. 

“The U.S. Secret Service is working closely with the FBI and our law enforcement partners in Palm Beach County,” Guglielmi said. “During advance security preparations prior to the Palm Beach arrival, which included the use of technology and comprehensive physical sweeps, our teams identified items of interest near Palm Beach International Airport.” 

FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed Sunday that the bureau has opened an investigation into the matter in a statement posted on X. 

“Prior to the President’s return to West Palm Beach, USSS discovered what appeared to be an elevated hunting stand within sight line of the Air Force One landing zone,” Patel told Fox News. He added that no suspects were located and that the bureau is collecting evidence, including cellphone data.

The discovery comes as the Secret Service prepares to conduct additional training with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the Palm Beach Police Department to enhance security at Mar-a-Lago. 

In response to the incident, security at Palm Beach International was heightened on Sunday, and Trump was seen using smaller stairs to deplane from Air Force One. 

This development follows two previous assassination attempts on Trump in 2024. In July, he was nearly struck by a bullet during a rally in Pennsylvania. Later, in September, he survived a second attempt at his West Palm Beach, Florida golf course. 

The second would-be assassin, Ryan Routh, scoped out the Palm Beach International Airport before settling on Trump’s golf course for his attempt on the president’s life.

The Price of Beef is Too Damn High. Trump Has a Plan

(Headline USAPresident Donald Trump said Sunday that the United States could purchase Argentinian beef in an attempt to bring down prices for American consumers.

“We would buy some beef from Argentina,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight from Florida to Washington. “If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down.”

Trump promised earlier this week to address the issue as part of his efforts to keep inflation in check.

U.S. beef prices have been stubbornly high for a variety of reasons, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds there.

Trump has been working to help Argentina bolster its collapsing currency with a $20 billion credit swap line and additional financing from sovereign funds and the private sector ahead of midterm elections for his close ally, President Javier Milei.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

Philadelphia Police Find Human Remains in Search for Missing Woman

(Headline USAPhiladelphia police found human remains Saturday in their search for a 23-year-old woman who disappeared from her nursing home job about two weeks ago.

Police held a news conference Saturday to give an update on the disappearance of Kada Scott and released a statement saying investigators “recovered human remains believed to be” hers. But John Stanford, deputy commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department, stopped short of confirming the remains found in a wooded area behind an abandoned school were Scott’s.

An anonymous tip led police to the area they’d previously searched, according to Stanford. He said the remains, believed to be the body of a woman, were found in a shallow grave. He added that it appeared the person had been dead for several days.

This undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Kada Scott, 23, who has been missing since she stepped outside during her night shift at a nursing home on Oct. 4. (Philadelphia Police Department via AP)

“We are not going to confirm, at this point, that it is Kada Scott because that has to be done by the medical examiner’s office,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Stanford said investigators were in touch with Scott’s family on the developments but he declined to answer specific questions, citing an active investigation.

Police spokeswoman Tanya Little said Sunday that the department did not have any updates. A message left Sunday for the medical examiner’s office wasn’t immediately returned.

The case has prompted questions about the justice system.

Twenty-one-year-old Keon King has been arrested and charged with kidnapping, stalking and other charges in the disappearance of Scott. He had been allowed to go free after being charged in a similar case earlier this year.

In the Scott case, King’s bail has been set at $2.5 million. He remains in custody and has a preliminary hearing next month. His defense attorney did not return a message seeking comment.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

Epstein Prosecutor Denies Skiing w/ the Deceased Sex Offender

(Luis CornelioHeadline USAOne of the federal prosecutors who helped broker the 2008 sweetheart deal given to Jeffrey Epstein kept in touch with the late convicted sex offender for years after leaving the DOJ, newly unearthed documents from the House Oversight Committee reveal. 

Matthew Menchel, the former chief criminal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, reportedly had several meetings, dinners and phone calls with Epstein, and even allegedly joined him on a ski trip in the 2000s, according to the Miami Herald. 

The newly released files noted that there is photographic evidence of Menchel and Epstein together during the trip. However, Menchel denied the allegation after the records became public. 

“I have never skied with Jeffrey Epstein,” Menchel said in a statement on Friday. “There can be no photograph of me and Jeffrey Epstein skiing in Aspen or elsewhere because it did not happen.” 

In a separate 2020 statement, Menchel also denied having any “business relationship with Mr. Epstein at any point, not before, during or after my tenure at the US Attorney’s Office.”

At the time, he said Epstein had attempted to hire his firm to oversee several civil cases pertaining to the 2008 case but claimed he declined the offer. Menchel did not deny having met with Epstein after his DOJ tenure, the Miami Herald noted. 

The release of the documents comes amid renewed scrutiny of Epstein’s 2008 plea agreement that allowed him to avoid federal sex trafficking charges and granted immunity to several would-be co-conspirators. 

Epstein was ultimately prosecuted in 2019 under the Trump administration, after several investigations exposed how federal prosecutors had previously shielded him and his associates from harsh charges. 

Epstein was ultimately found dead while in federal custody, less than a month after his arrest. 

Israel Launches Wave of Heavy Airstrikes Across Gaza, Killing at Least 45

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.comThe Israeli military launched heavy airstrikes across Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 45 Palestinians, marking the deadliest day of Israeli attacks in the Strip since the ceasefire went into effect on October 10.

The IDF stepped up its attacks on Gaza after alleging its troops were attacked by Palestinian militants in Rafah, southern Gaza, calling it a “violation” of the ceasefire, though reports indicate an explosion was caused by an Israeli vehicle running over an unexploded bomb.

Hamas denied responsibility for the incident in Rafah on Sunday, saying it hasn’t been in contact with its fighters in the area. “We confirm our full commitment to carrying out everything that was agreed, first and foremost the ceasefire in all areas of the Gaza Strip,” Hamas’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement.

“We have no knowledge of any incidents or clashes taking place in the Rafah area, since these are red zones under occupation control, and contact with what remains of our groups there has been cut off since the war resumed in March of this year. We have no information on whether they have been killed or are still alive since that date,” al-Qassam added.

Israeli officials said later in the day that two IDF soldiers were killed in the attack. According to Haaretz, Israeli military officials said they thought militants fired on Israeli troops after exiting a tunnel, but other reports contradict the claim.

Curt Mills, the Executive Director of The American Conservative, wrote on X that a senior Trump administration official told him: “Hamas did nothing. Israeli tank hit an unexploded IED that has probably been there for months.”

Ryan Grim, a reporter for Drop Site News, reported something similar. “Soon after the explosion in Rafah, I’m told by a source familiar, the White House and Pentagon knew that the incident was caused by an Israeli settler bulldozer running over unexploded ordnance — contradicting Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas had popped up from tunnels,” he wrote on X.

“After Netanyahu said he was blocking all aid from entering Gaza in response, and unleashed a bombing campaign, the administration conveyed to Israel that they know what happened. Netanyahu then announced he would re-open the crossings in a few hours,” Grim added.

Israeli strikes on Sunday mainly targeted southern and central Gaza, and pictures and videos show that children were among the casualties. The latest reported bombing hit a tent sheltering displaced people near the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least six.

In a statement on Sunday night, the IDF said that it had “begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire,” signaling that its heavy bombardment was over. “The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it,” the IDF said.

Israel has repeatedly violated the truce by killing dozens of Palestinians over the past week. One strike on Friday hit a vehicle and killed 11 members of the same family, including seven young children and three women.

The IDF also warned all Palestinians to remain west of the so-called “yellow line,” the line IDF troops withdrew to when the ceasefire went into effect. Under the current arrangement, the IDF controls more than 50% of the Palestinian territory.

Poll: Vance, Trump Jr. Early Favorites to Win GOP Nod for Next President

(The Center Square) Vice President JD Vance is currently the strongest contender for the 2028 presidential election among Republican voters, according to a new poll.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, surveyed 2,565 registered voters from Oct. 2-6, 2025, via opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages. Only those who identified as Republican or Independent were asked to choose who among Republican contenders they’d vote for.

Among 978 registered Republicans and 178 Independents, JD Vance led the pack as the top choice among a group of potential GOP primary candidates and household names in the Republican Party. Thirty-eight percent of Republicans indicated they would vote for Vance if the Republican primary were held the day they were polled, as did 41% of Independents polled.

The other top contenders were Donald Trump Jr., who, though selected by 26% of respondents, still trailed the vice president by 12 points, along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Vance and Trump Jr. were the only ones, however, to poll out of the single digits, while DeSantis and Rubio polled much closer to the other potential candidates at 6% and 4%.

TCS (2) VVP Oct 2025 - Preferred Republican Presidential Primary Candidate for 2028
Data: The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll (October 2025); Chart: Kate Guenther / The Center Square

Of the nine contenders, Vance performed best among Americans ages 45 and older, whites and other races besides Blacks and Hispanics. He secured 40% or more support, as well as those with a household income of $100,000 or less. He also nabbed 42% support from non-colleged-educated respondents. Those 65 and older favored Vance more than any other demographic, with 50% indicating they’d choose the vice president in 2028.

And while Democrats typically win most of the female vote, Vance actually performed better among Republican and Independent females than males, securing 40% support from women to 36% from men.

Conversely, Trump Jr. was twice as popular among Republican voters as Independents. Only 13% of Independent respondents chose the president’s son, while he captured 26% of Republicans’ support. And while he and Vance appeared equally popular among the college-educated (both received 33% support) Trump Jr. saw far less support from those without a college degree (18%).

Trump Jr. polled slightly better than the vice president with Hispanics and Blacks – 23% and 21% to Vance’s 19% and 18%, respectively – but was the clear favorite among the younger demographic, nabbing roughly 40% of respondents ages 18 to 44. He was more popular with male voters and higher-income households above $100,000.

As far as regional and community preference goes, Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author, saw 47% support and polled better among suburbanites at 42%. City dwellers clearly preferred Trump Jr., at 44%. Vance also performed best in the country’s Midwest, South and West regions, but Trump Jr. polled better in the Northeast, claiming 38% support to Vance’s 31%.

Among the rest, DeSantis held 6% support, followed by Rubio at 4% and Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at 3%. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Glenn Youngkin and Tom Cotton polled lowest. Fifteen percent of respondents indicated they weren’t sure who they’d vote for.

California Creates First Statewide Antisemitism Monitor for Public Schools

(José Niño, Headline USA) Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation making California the first state to appoint a statewide Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator for all public schools.

Assembly Bill 715, which takes effect January 1 and signed on the two-year anniversary of Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, creates a new Office of Civil Rights and establishes a coordinator position appointed by the governor to develop antisemitism education, track incidents, and recommend accountability measures. 

According to a report by the American Jewish Committee, the bill mandates that school districts investigate and take corrective action when discriminatory content is identified, with districts facing potential fines and teachers risking disciplinary action.

The Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, which bills itself as the state level equivalent to AIPAC, made the legislation its sole priority for 2025 and coordinated a coalition of 72 Jewish organizations to push for its passage, per a press release by JPAC. 

In an earlier press release that JPAC published in January, since 2019, JPAC has secured over $465 million from California’s state budget for security grants, Holocaust education, and social services.

“Today, California is sending a strong and unambiguous message — hate has no place in our schools and will not be tolerated,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel and Senator Scott Wiener, Co-Chairs of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus after the signing.

Yet every major California education organization opposed or raised serious concerns about the bill, including the California Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union. “At a time when there are those that seek to weaponize public education, AB 715 would unfortunately arm some ill intentioned people with the ability to do so,” the union wrote

More than 120 Muslim organizations urged Newsom to veto the measure, according to a September press release published by CAIR California. Hussam Ayloush, CEO of the Council on American Islamic Relations California, said after the signing that “AB 715 is not about protecting students from hate. It’s about shielding a foreign government engaged in genocide from being discussed honestly in our classrooms.”

In his signing message, Newsom acknowledged “urgent concerns about unintended consequences” and called for follow up legislation to address them, per a report by Politico

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

Hit-and-Run Driver Crashes into a Birthday Party, Injuring 9 Kids in Maryland

(Headline USAA hit-and-run driver slammed into an outdoor birthday party in suburban Washington, D.C., injuring nine kids and two adults on Saturday evening, police said.

A girl and a toddler had critical injuries from the crash in Bladensburg, Maryland, according to statements from the city’s police department and the Prince George’s County Fire and EMS Department.

Video of the scene posted on social media showed a white tent with its front torn off on a lawn outside a home.

Seven other kids and two adults had serious but not life-threatening injuries, officials said. The children ranged in age from 2 to 9 years old, Bladensburg Police said in a statement.

The driver got out of the vehicle and ran away, authorities said, and has not been found. Investigators have not determined what caused the vehicle to run off Maryland Highway 450 at around around 10:15 p.m. Saturday.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

Dead Epstein Victim’s Book Hits the Shelves on Tuesday

(Headline USAA posthumous memoir by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre offers an expanded account but few new revelations about her longstanding claims to have been sexually trafficked by the late financier to billionaires, politicians and Britain’s Prince Andrew.

Titled “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice,” the book is set for release Tuesday. It was co-written by author-journalist Amy Wallace, and was completed before Giuffre died by suicide in April.

Giuffre told her story in interviews and lawsuits for 16 years. The book, which she said enabled her to tell her whole story and “provide context where it has been sorely lacking,” revisits her allegations involving the men who socialized with Epstein, but carefully so. In many instances, she has left their names out, writing that she either didn’t know them or feared retaliation.

But she has added details and description of how her alleged experiences with Epstein — after what she said was a traumatic childhood and other instances of sexual abuse — affected her psychologically and left her struggling to cope. Giuffre also seeks to explain how she was able to rationalize staying for nearly two years in what she called “Epstein’s sickening world.”

“I needed him not to be a selfish, cruel pedophile. So I told myself he wasn’t one,” she wrote about her mindset at the time.

Giuffre first met Epstein in the summer of 2000, weeks before she turned 17, while working at the spa at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. In the book, she retells the story of being hired by Epstein’s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, to work as a “masseuse” for Epstein.

She said Epstein and Maxwell coaxed her into performing sex acts during massages, then began taking her to his luxurious homes in New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Mexico, where she says she met — and sometimes was directed to have sex with — numerous famous friends and acquaintances of Epstein.

Maxwell has denied participating in any sexual abuse and called Giuffre’s account of being trafficked a lie, as have all of the men she has publicly accused.

In the book, Giuffre details alleged encounters with Prince Andrew, who she sued in 2021, claiming that they had sex when she was 17. Andrew denied her claims and the two settled the lawsuit in 2022.

Speculation that Epstein was involved in a global sex trafficking ring continues to cause headaches for the Trump administration, which has been under pressure to publicly release more records related to the FBI’s investigations of Epstein and Maxwell.

Even Giuffre, in the concluding pages of the book, asks: “Where are those videotapes the FBI confiscated from Epstein’s houses? And why haven’t they led to the prosecution of any more abusers?”

In the book, she describes meeting Trump once at Mar-a-Lago, where her father worked, but doesn’t accuse Trump of wrongdoing.

Trump “couldn’t have been friendlier,” Giuffre said, adding that he offered to help her find babysitting work.

Giuffre also mentions that she was once present for dinners Epstein had with former President Bill Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, but she also didn’t accuse them of any wrongdoing.

Giuffre broke off contact with Epstein in 2002. Three years later, Palm Beach police began investigating Epstein after the parents of another teenage girl reported that their daughter had also been paid for a sex act. Police identified multiple underage girls with similar stories about being hired to give sexualized massages, but the investigation ended in 2008 when Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a person under 18 for prostitution. He served 13 months of an 18-month jail sentence.

In the book, Giuffre wrote that Epstein and Maxwell persuaded her to become a recruiter who found other girls who would perform sexualized massages on Epstein — something she called “the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“The faces of the girls I recruited will always haunt me,” she wrote.

Federal prosecutors in New York brought new charges against Epstein in 2019 but he purportedly killed himself in jail as he awaited trial. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of charges including sex trafficking and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Giuffre wasn’t part of either case.

Many Epstein victims have told their stories publicly over the years, but Giuffre always stood apart with her claim to have been “loaned” to Epstein’s rich and powerful friends and acquaintances.

The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they are the victims of sexual abuse unless they have come forward publicly with their stories, as Giuffre has.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

China Accuses NSA of Committing a Cyberattack

(Headline USAChina on Sunday accused the U.S. National Security Agency of carrying out cyberattacks on its national time center following an investigation, saying any damage to related facilities could have disrupted network communications, financial systems and power supply.

The Ministry of State Security alleged in a WeChat post that the U.S. agency had exploited vulnerabilities in the messaging services of a foreign mobile phone brand to steal sensitive information from devices of the National Time Service Center’s staff in 2022. It did not specify the brand.

The U.S. agency also used 42 types of “special cyberattack weapons” to target the center’s multiple internal network systems and attempted to infiltrate a key timing system between 2023 and 2024, it said.

It said it had evidence but did not provide it in the post.

It said the time center is responsible for generating and distributing China’s standard time, in addition to providing timing services to industries such as communications, finance, power, transport and defense. It had provided guidance to the center to eliminate the risks.

“The U.S. is accusing others of what it does itself, repeatedly hyping up claims about Chinese cyber threats,” it said.

Western governments in recent years have alleged hackers linked to the Chinese government have targeted officials, journalists, corporations and others. The ministry’s statement could fuel tensions between Washington and Beijing, on top of trade, technology and Taiwan issues.

The U.S. Embassy did not immediately comment.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press