Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to Pause $4B in Foreign Aid

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Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration to Pause $4B in Foreign Aid

(Sarah Roderick-Fitch, The Center Square) The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to temporarily pause $4 billion in foreign aid, giving the court more time to review the case.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued the emergency reprieve Tuesday afternoon after the administration appealed a lower court ruling, requiring the government to dole out the money by the end of the fiscal year, ending Sept. 30.

Representing the Trump administration, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the court to pause what he argues is an “unlawful injunction” issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The case stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed at the beginning of his second term, ordering the federal government to put on hold foreign aid so the government could review how it would be spent.

At the center of the fight are frozen funds intended for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Challengers of the order argue that the funds were already approved by Congress, making it unlawful. D.C. Circuit Jude Amir Ali ordered the government to “make available for obligation the full amount of funds that Congress” approved for foreign aid.

In an appeal to the Supreme Court, Sauer claimed the lower court ruling “raises a grave and urgent threat to the separation of powers.”

Since February, the case has bounced between lower courts, prompting the administration to appeal to the highest court.

While Tuesday’s order is not a complete victory for the Trump administration, it marks another favorable move by the highest court in the administration’s favor.

Congressional Delegation Requests Removal of Magistrate

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Congressional Delegation Requests Removal of Magistrate

(Alan Wooten, The Center Square) Removal of Magistrate Teresa Stokes from North Carolina’s Judicial 26th District is being sought by all 10 Republican members of the state’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.

In a letter dated Tuesday and addressed to Chief Judge Roy Wiggins, the lawmakers wrote in part that state statutes provide “for the removal of a magistrate for willful and persistent failure to perform the duties of the office or conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice that brings the judicial office into disrepute.”

The Aug. 22 murder of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail has been seen on video provided to police by the Charlotte Area Transit System. In the chilling scene, Decarlos Brown Jr. is behind her about four minutes, both seated, before he stands and stabs her to death.

Zarutska, 23, fled the war in Ukraine, her family says. Brown, 34, is reportedly homeless or has been taken in by family. He faces a first-degree murder charge from the state, and a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

The letter is led by Rep. Tim Moore and signed by Dr. Greg Murphy, Virginia Foxx, Addison McDowell, David Rouzer, Rev. Mark Harris, Richard Hudson, Pat Harrigan, Chuck Edwards and Brad Knott.

“Judge Stokes had the chance to protect the public and chose not to,” Moore said in a released statement. “It’s clear that she’s unfit to hold this consequential position and should be removed from the bench immediately.”

Their letter points out Stokes’ actions in January, when she authorized the release of Brown with only “written promise” to appear in court later. His 14 prior offenses, they write, included possession of a firearm by a felon, robbery with a dangerous weapon and physical assault of his sister.

Stokes was overseeing a misdemeanor charge of Brown being combative with police.

“Yet despite this history of violent and unstable behavior,” the lawmakers write, “Magistrate Stokes released Brown without requiring bond or imposing any meaningful conditions to safeguard the public.”

The letter also says, “By releasing a repeat violent offender on nothing more than his written promise to appear, Magistrate Stokes displayed a willful failure to perform the duties of her office and engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, as set forth” in the general statutes. “Her decision has undermined public confidence in the judicial system and exposed the community to wholly preventable harm.”

In addition to removal for this act, the lawmakers request Wiggins check her prior bond determinations “to assess the full extent of misconduct.”

MAHA Releases Strategy to Improve Children’s Health

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MAHA Releases Strategy to Improve Children’s Health

(Morgan Sweeney, The Center Square) The Make America Healthy Again Commission released a sweeping strategy Tuesday to nationally improve children’s health, which includes more than 120 initiatives – including advancing research on autism, pesticides, vaccine injury and water quality – aimed at that end.

The strategy fulfills a directive from an executive order the president signed in February requiring an assessment of American children’s health and a subsequent strategy for improving it. The assessment identified “four potential drivers behind the rise in childhood chronic disease” that it said simultaneously  “present the clearest opportunities for progress”: poor diet, exposure to synthetic chemicals, lack of physical activity and chronic stress and over-medicalization. 

“We are now the sickest country in the world. The CDC announced this week that 76.4% of Americans are suffering with chronic disease,” said Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., citing rates of diabetes and autism. 

Chronic disease and poor health affects every facet of American life, according to Kennedy, including national security.

“This is a national security issue. Eight of ten of our children, of our young men, cannot qualify for military service,” Kennedy added.

Despite some of the bleak statistics, Kennedy expressed optimism about what he said the administration will achieve with the freshly released strategy, expecting to see marked progress in some initiatives within the next four months.

“The accomplishments we’re going to have by the end of the year are going to be historic and unprecedented, including removing harmful chemicals from our food – including nine petroleum based food dyes… Front-of-package labeling for ultra-processed foods, requiring nutrition and metabolic health courses and medical schools – something that is not happening, except in a very limited way today,” Kennedy said. 

He went on to name a number of other objectives his agency will have either started or completed by then.

Kennedy and others on the commission, including Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who has worked with states to make soda and candy ineligible for certain food assistance programs, noted the “whole of government” approach they’re taking to respond to some of the issues named in the report.

Trump: Department of Education will Protect Prayer in Schools

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Trump: Department of Education will Protect Prayer in Schools

(Esther Wickham, The Center Square) The U.S. Department of Education will issue new guidance on prayer in public schools, according to President Donald Trump in his speech at the Bible Museum this week.

The hearing at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., was about “Religious Liberty in Public Education.” The Justice Department’s Religious Liberty Commission was established by Trump, “highlighting current threats to religious liberty, and developing strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations.”

During Trump’s speech, he announced that the Education Department would soon issue guidance on protecting the right of prayer in public schools.

“I am pleased to announce this morning that the Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools, and it’s total protection,”  Trump said.

The Department of Education told the Center Square that it plans to support the president and promote religious freedom across America’s schools.

“Free exercise of religion is a founding principle and a constitutionally protected right afforded to all citizens of our great nation,” Department of Education Press Secretary Savannah Newhouse told The Center Square. “The Department of Education looks forward to supporting President Trump’s vision to promote religious liberty in our schools across the country.”

The department did not detail what the guidance would entail.

While freedom of religion is not restricted in schools, in 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school-sponsored prayer in public schools unconstitutional under the First Amendment and its clause forbidding the U.S. government from establishing a religion.

In his first term, Trump issued guidance on protecting prayer in public schools, stating that students can read religious texts or pray during recess and other non-instructional periods, organize prayer groups, and express their religious beliefs in their assignments.

Since stepping into office for a second term, Trump has made it a priority to restore religious liberty and “bring back prayer” to public schools.

“We have to bring back religion in America, bring it back stronger than ever before as our country grows stronger and stronger,” Trump said. “To have a great nation, you have to have religion.”

Huckabee Says the US Won’t Tell Israel Not To Annex the Occupied West Bank

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Huckabee Says the US Won’t Tell Israel Not To Annex the Occupied West Bank

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in an interview last week that the US has never asked Israel to “not apply sovereignty,” referring to the possibility of Israel annexing parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“The US has never asked Israel to not apply sovereignty,” Huckabee said, according to a September 5 post from a journalist for Israel’s Channel 14. “I have repeatedly stated that the US respects Israel as a sovereign nation and will not tell Israel what to do. This is also what Secretary Rubio has said as recently as this week.”

Israeli officials said last week that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had signaled to them that the US wouldn’t oppose Israel if it moved to annex the West Bank. He has also said publicly that annexation could be Israel’s response to Western states taking steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently outlined a proposal for annexing 82% of the West Bank and leaving six Palestinian population centers isolated as islands. He said that his plan aims for “maximum territory and minimum Arab population.”

Huckabee has also made clear that the Trump administration doesn’t oppose the recent major expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Smotrich said would “erase” the idea of a Palestinian state. Huckabee has claimed that the settlements are not illegal under international law despite their clear prohibition under the Geneva Convention of 1949, which both the US and Israel have signed and ratified.

Huckabee is a Christian Zionist, and his approach to Israel and Palestine is based on his view that God gave historic Palestine to the modern state of Israel, a theology that is rejected by the Catholic Church and most other Christian denominations. When asked in a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post about the growing skepticism of Israel among Americans, Huckabee suggested Christian pastors who didn’t teach his viewpoint were to blame.

“There are pastors in the evangelical world who have not explained to their congregations where the support for Israel comes from biblically,” he said.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

 

 

Charlotte Train Stabber Says He Was Under Mind Control

Ken Silva
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Charlotte Train Stabber Says He Was Under Mind Control

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The man who stabbed 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska to death on a public train in Charlotte has reportedly told his family that a government planted a chip in his body, and that he was under mind control.

“He was a high risk. He was not in his right mind. He was not safe for society. We know what he has been dealing with the last three years. And now an innocent woman is dead,” said alleged killer DeCarlos Brown Jr.’s sister, Tracey Brown—as reported first by the Daily Mail. Brown reportedly told the outlet that she was assaulted by her older brother three years ago in an attack that saw him bite her and break a door, and that he’s a paranoid schizophrenic who told her multiple times that the government had implanted a chip in him.

Brown made similar comments to police on Jan. 19, when he was arrested for misusing 911.

“He believed someone gave him a ‘man-made’ material that controlled when he ate, walked, talked, etc. Brown wanted officers to investigate this ‘man-made’ material that was inside of his body,” an arrest warrant in that case says.

“Officers advised Brown that the issue was a medical issue and that there was nothing further they could do.”

In the 911 case, Brown was released with on a “written promise” to return to court. A judge also ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation, but that was postponed in June.

A judge also ordered Brown to undergo a mental health evaluation in the stabbing case to see whether he’s fit to proceed with a criminal trial. Brown is currently being held at a psych ward—though the Justice Department has a warrant out for his arrest on federal charges that were announced Tuesday.

Headline USA was the first publication to obtain and publish the full video of the gruesome incident. That footage can be found here.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Iran Says It’s Ready for a Nuclear Deal To Limit Uranium Enrichment and Increase Inspections

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Iran Says It’s Ready for a Nuclear Deal To Limit Uranium Enrichment and Increase Inspections

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an op-ed published by The Guardian on Sunday that Iran was ready to pursue a nuclear deal that would limit its uranium enrichment and increase oversight of its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

The purpose of the op-ed was to tell the UK, France, and Germany to reverse course after the three countries, known as the E3, took action to trigger the “snapback” mechanism of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that will re-impose UN Security Council sanctions.

“The three countries want the world to forget that it was the US, and not Iran, that unilaterally ended participation in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name of the deal,” Araghchi wrote.

Araghchi criticized the E3 for backing US demands for zero uranium enrichment and supporting the US-Israeli war on Iran. “It does not make any sense for the E3 to claim participation in a deal pillared on uranium enrichment in Iran while demanding that Iran must disavow those very capabilities,” he said.

“Openly cheerleading illegal military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities protected by international law – as Germany’s chancellor has done – does not constitute ‘participation.’ While this lawless behaviour is fueling calls for action to ensure ‘never again,’ Iran remains open to diplomacy. It is ready to forge a realistic and lasting bargain that entails ironclad oversight and curbs on enrichment in exchange for the termination of sanctions,” Araghchi added.

The Iranian diplomat warned that the failure to reach a deal “may have consequences destructive for the region and beyond on a whole new level” and made clear that Iran was ready to face another Israeli attack.

“Israel may be pitching itself as capable of conducting war on behalf of the West. But as in June, the truth is that the powerful armed forces of Iran are ready and able to once again pummel Israel into running to ‘daddy’ to be bailed out,” Araghchi wrote. “The failed Israeli gambit this summer cost American taxpayers billions of dollars, robbed the United States of vital hardware that is now missing from its inventories, and projected Washington as a reckless actor dragged into a rogue regime’s wars of choice.”

Some Iranian officials want Tehran to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in response to the snapback sanctions, a step that could be used as a pretext for Israel to launch another war, even though Israel is not a signatory to the NPT. Unlike Iran, Israel actually has a secret nuclear weapons program and stockpile of nuclear warheads that is not officially acknowledged by Israel or the US.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

 

Israeli Military Orders Full Evacuation of Gaza City

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Israeli Military Orders Full Evacuation of Gaza City

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) The Israeli military on Tuesday ordered the full evacuation of Gaza City, where famine is taking place, as it continues to escalate its offensive with the goal of cleansing the city of its Palestinian population and razing every building to the ground.

“To all residents of the city of Gaza and those present in all its neighborhoods, from the Old City and Tafah to the east and up to the sea to the west,” IDF Arabic language spokesman Avichay Adraee wrote on X.

Adraee said the Israeli military is “determined to eliminate Hamas and will operate in the Gaza city area with great force, as it has operated in various parts of the Strip.”

Adraee told all Palestinian civilians in the area to head to southern Gaza, where the Israeli military continues to bomb and shoot Palestinians. The statement marks the first time since the IDF began its current offensive in Gaza City in August that it ordered the entire city to be cleared. Previous evacuation orders applied to specific sections of the city.

The IDF has estimated that there were more than one million Palestinian civilians in Gaza City before it began its offensive and that about 100,000 people have already fled the city. 

About 50,000 Palestinians are believed to have left northern Gaza and gone south of the Israeli-controlled Netzarim Corridor.

There hasn’t been a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza City since many do not believe they will be any safer in the south, and for malnourished and sick Palestinians, another forced displacement could be a death sentence. Palestinians also believe that once they leave Gaza City, they will never be able to return, since Israeli officials have made clear that their ultimate goal is ethnic cleansing.

In recent days, the Israeli military has destroyed dozens of high-rise buildings in Gaza City, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who threatened on Monday that the assault on the city would intensify. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also said the city would be hit with a “powerful hurricane” of Israeli strikes.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com. 

New Orleans Mayor to Appear in Court on Corruption Charges Tied to Alleged Affair

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New Orleans Mayor to Appear in Court on Corruption Charges Tied to Alleged Affair

(Headline USA) New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday for the first time since the Democrat was indicted on corruption charges stemming from an alleged romantic relationship with her bodyguard.

She is expected to enter a plea in response to conspiracy, fraud and obstruction charges in what prosecutors described as a yearslong scheme to conceal an affair with her bodyguard as the two traveled, wined and dined together on taxpayers’ dime.

Cantrell’s bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, has already pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and making false statements after he was indicted in July 2024. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday for the additional charges.

Cantrell, the first female mayor in New Orleans’ 300-year history, was elected twice but now becomes the city’s first mayor to be charged while in office in a state with a reputation for public corruption. She has only four months before she leaves office under term limits.

The mayor, once known for her outspoken persona, has kept quiet about the charges in the weeks since the 18-count indictment against her and Vappie was announced in mid-August. She did not acknowledge the indictment during public appearances to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina late last month.

Cantrell was already receding into the background of city affairs over the past year and offered no apparent resistance to President Donald Trump’s suggestion earlier this month to send the National Guard and federal agents to New Orleans even as other Democrats bristled.

She’s also been cast as a pariah by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who announced on Sept. 3 that Cantrell was suspended from involvement in federal transactions with HUD. 

The City Council issued a statement last week saying it had reassured the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the Office of Community Development that other city officials could sign federal contracts instead.

Cantrell and Vappie used WhatsApp for more than 15,000 messages, where they professed their love and plotted to harass a citizen who helped expose their relationship, delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents “and ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury,” acting U.S. 

Attorney Michael Simpson said. Vappie’s 14 trips with Cantrell cost taxpayers $70,000, not including Cantrell’s own travel costs, according to the indictment.

In a WhatsApp exchange, the indictment says, Vappie recalled accompanying Cantrell to Scotland in October 2021 on a dreamy trip “where it all started.”

Cantrell, whose husband died in 2023, has denied having anything more than a professional relationship with Vappie. She lashed out at associates who raised questions about the amount of time she spent with her bodyguard, including on wine-tasting trips and in a city-owned apartment, court records show.

Cantrell joins the ranks of more than 100 people brought up on corruption charges in Louisiana in the past two decades, said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a watchdog group.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

Potential Jurors Return for the Trial of a Man Charged with Trying to Assassinate Trump in Florida

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Potential Jurors Return for the Trial of a Man Charged with Trying to Assassinate Trump in Florida

(Headline USA) A prospective juror being screened Tuesday for the trial of a man charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump while he played golf last year in South Florida was dismissed after saying he was present at Ryan Routh’s arrest.

Another man was excused during the second day of jury selection after saying that Routh had left a voicemail message at the construction company where he works several days before the assassination attempt. A woman was dismissed after saying she knew a deputy on the witness list.

By Tuesday night, 96 of the 180 potential jurors remained in the jury pool. A third day of jury selection is scheduled for Wednesday.

Those who remained included a golf course superintendent who said Trump had offered him a job at a golf course in West Palm Beach several decades ago, but he had turned it down.

The potential jurors were asked Tuesday morning whether they had hardships that would prevent them from serving on the jury and if they could adhere to the presumption of innocence for the defendant.

A woman raised her hand and told U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that she had been following the case since the incident occurred, and it would be hard to change her opinion.

“I am MAGA and I love my president,” the woman said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Cannon signed off on Routh’s request to represent himself but said court-appointed attorneys needed to remain as standby counsel.

On Tuesday afternoon, Cannon asked a panel of jurors whether they’d be able to set aside their feelings on Trump and make decisions based on the rule of law. She used questions submitted by prosecutors and told Routh again on Tuesday that the questions he submitted were not relevant to the case.

During a hearing before jury selection began on Monday, Cannon dismissed Routh’s questions, which included asking jurors about their views on Gaza, the talk of the U.S. acquiring Greenland and what they would do if they were driving and saw a turtle in the road.

Routh’s trial begins nearly a year after prosecutors say a U.S. Secret Service agent thwarted Routh’s attempt to shoot the Republican presidential nominee. Routh, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.

Just nine weeks earlier, Trump had survived another attempt on his life while campaigning in Pennsylvania. That gunman had fired eight shots, with one bullet grazing Trump’s ear, before being shot by a Secret Service counter sniper.

Prosecutors have said Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

 

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