Israel Strikes Beirut, Breaking a Ceasefire—Again

Breaking a year-long ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel struck the suburbs of Beirut on Sunday, killing at least five people and wounding 28 others, according to the BBC and Lebanon’s health ministry.

Israel says it killed a senior Hezbollah official, Haytham Tabtabai, in an attack aimed at discouraging the militant group from rearming.

Hezbollah has not attacked Israel since the ceasefire began last November, according to the AP.

In a statement, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun accused Israel of refusing to implement its side of the deal, post-ceasefire. He asked the international community to “intervene with strength and seriousness to stop the attacks on Lebanon and its people.”

This is not the first time Israel has broken its ceasefire with Hezbollah, nor has the country kept its ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

According to the Gaza Government Media office, Israel has violated the ceasefire with Gaza nearly 500 times in 44 days, killing hundreds of Palestinians, reported Al Jazeera.

Yesterday in Gaza, Israel launched airstrikes that killed at least 24 people. One strike targeted a vehicle, killing 11 people and wounding over 20. Hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmiya told reporters that most of the victims were children.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that it launched the strikes after a Hamas fighter shot at Israeli soldiers in Israeli-occupied Gaza, none of whom were hurt. Earlier in the week, Israeli strikes killed at least 33 other Palestinians.

Israel has mounted more and more attacks on Gaza and on Lebanon in recent weeks, despite ceasefire agreements. The intensified strikes come at the same time as the U.N. Security Council endorsed President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which would create a “Board of Peace” to oversee the future of the region.

But as Israel continues to kill civilians in Gaza and Lebanon, despite existing ceasefires, it’s hard to find hope that Trump’s new peace plan will do much of anything at all.

FBI Director Kash Patel has come under fire for using taxpayer-funded resources like government planes and SWAT protection for personal reasons.

When his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, performed at an NRA convention, she had an FBI SWAT team as her bodyguards. The agents were members of a special unit trained to rescue hostages and penetrate barricaded buildings, according to The New York Times. Once the team had secured the convention center, they departed. But Patel didn’t like that.

He reportedly lambasted the team’s commander for leaving Wilkins without protection while she chatted with fans on the convention floor.

It’s only the latest incidence of Patel using taxpayer-funded resources for his own personal activities. He’s been treating specialized FBI agents like his and his girlfriend’s private security detail, as well as jet-setting across the globe on government planes, according to the Times.

Former FBI agent Christopher O’Leary criticized Patel’s actions, telling the Times that his use of the private plane and SWAT agents for his girlfriend’s detail “are indicative of his lack of leadership experience, judgment and humility.”

And Patel’s right-wing allies aren’t happy either: “Is she considered Kash’s spouse?” asked Grace Chong, an influencer who works for Steve Bannon, on X. “Is that why she’s getting protection because if not then why are we paying for this?”

Patel claims that Wilkins is getting this level of protection because she’s received death threats. But that doesn’t explain his extensive travel—to see her, and for other personal and business-related reasons.

An FBI spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal earlier this month that Patel had taken nearly a dozen personal trips since becoming FBI director in February, compared to former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s itinerary of 10 personal flights over a four-year period.

After his surprisingly warm meeting with President Donald Trump, NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani reiterated that yes, he still believes Trump is a fascist.

During an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Kristen Welker pressed Mamdani about the recent event at the White House. By all accounts, the two had gotten along unexpectedly well, and the president had beamed at the press conference afterwards. Trump also posted several photos of the two together on his Truth Social account.

The unexpectedly friendly vibes turned the meeting into somewhat of a public spectacle, and Welker referenced an exchange with a reporter that took place about Mamdani’s previous usage of the term fascist. She asked if he still believed that the president was one.

“That’s something I’ve said in the past and I say it today,” Mamdani said.

“Do you still believe President Trump is a threat to democracy?” Welker followed up later.

“Everything that I’ve said in the past I continue to believe,” Mamdani said. “That’s the thing that I think is important about politics, is we don’t shy away from where we have disagreements, but we understand what brings us to that table.”

Later in the interview, Welker tried again, raising a valid point.

“I think that some of your supporters would be curious to know … you say you stand by your past statements, that yes he’s a threat to the democracy, how do you square working with someone who you still think is a threat to the democracy?”

“I think working for the people of New York City demands that you work with everyone and anyone—and that you always look to find those areas of agreement while not overlooking the places of disagreement,” Mamdani said.

The friendly meeting between two politicians who had insulted each other for months (Trump has called Mamdani “my little communist,” among other things) shocked and irritated Trump’s MAGA base, including far-right activist Laura Loomer, who denounced the event on social media.

While Trump and Mamdani, who is a Democratic Socialist, disagree on nearly everything, the two seem to have bonded over affordability, and their shared love of New York City.

President Donald Trump’s rage has not cooled for the six Democrats who posted a video reminding military and intelligence personnel that their duty is to the Constitution, not to him.

The president fired off two Truth Social posts late Saturday night in an all-caps rant about the issue, writing: “THE TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW, NOT ROAMING THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS TRYING TO EXPLAIN THAT WHAT THEY SAID WAS OK. IT WASN’T, AND NEVER WILL BE! IT WAS SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, AND SEDITION IS A MAJOR CRIME. THERE CAN BE NO OTHER INTERPRETATION OF WHAT THEY SAID!”

Next, he posted, “MANY GREAT LEGAL SCHOLARS AGREE THAT THE DEMOCRAT TRAITORS THAT TOLD THE MILITARY TO DISOBEY MY ORDERS, AS PRESIDENT, HAVE COMMITTED A CRIME OF SERIOUS PROPORTION!”

These are clearly the ramblings of a man who is totally OK, and who doesn’t worry at all that the things he tells the military to do—like, say, strike foreign boats in international waters, acts which have killed over 80 people so far—may be illegal.

The president has been posting about this issue for several days now, and his ravings have consequences. MAGA influencers online are now calling for the so-called “Seditious Six” to be arrested. And on Friday, five out of the six Democrats who created the video received bomb threats to their homes or offices.

No one was harmed, but Trump’s posts about the issue have been condemned by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

It was here for a bad time, not a long time: The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been officially disbanded.

The shady department led by tech billionaire Elon Musk that laid off scores of workers and gutted parts of the federal government has faded away into oblivion, according to an exclusive from Reuters.

When Reuters journalists asked about the department, which set out to reduce government spending but fell short on its promises while creating chaos in the federal workforce, the Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor said, “That doesn’t exist.”

DOGE is no longer a “centralized entity,” he added.

The Trump administration has been signaling the end of DOGE since the summer, according to the report, and the president generally talks about it in the past-tense. Many of DOGE’s staff have since found jobs elsewhere in the government, like Acting DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, who is now an official advisor to RFK Jr. at the Department of Health and Human Services.

DOGE’s legacy is both very stupid and very sad: It decimated the federal workforce, including Social Security personnel at local offices, and made it easier for hackers to access your data. The agency tore apart USAID, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of lives lost globally. And all this for projected savings—numbers which grew smaller and less ambitious every time Musk mentioned them.

While DOGE may fade away into a fever dream of Trump’s first 100 days, its effects—and the suffering it inflicted—will be felt for a long time.

Elon Musk’s latest feature on X has had some shocking and unintended consequences.

Starting Friday, X users were able to use a new “about this account” feature to see what country accounts were based in. And for many “America First” posters, this revealed an inconvenient truth, as reported by The Daily Beast.

For example, one account literally named “America First”—with 67,000 followers—seems to be based not in the U.S., but in Bangladesh.

Another popular conservative account, MAGA Nation, with nearly 400,000 followers and a bio that reads, “Standing strong with President Trump 🇺🇸 | America First | Patriot Voice for We The People,” is apparently based in Eastern Europe.

And an Ivanka News fanpage with 1 million followers that posts things like, “Does the spread of Islam on American soil concern you?” is based in Nigeria.

Twitter users rounded up dozens of these accounts, sharing their disbelief. Some Democratic influencers rejoiced: Harry Sisson, a Gen-Z, pro-Biden creator, said, “This is easily one of the greatest days on this platform. Seeing all of these MAGA accounts get exposed as foreign actors trying to destroy the United States is a complete vindication of Democrats, like myself and many on here, who have been warning about this.” (Sisson also compiled his own list of foreign accounts.)

There were some rumors that Musk had disabled the feature upon seeing so many of his biggest fans unmasked, but as of Sunday, it seems to still be intact.

Five out of the six Democratic lawmakers who urged the military to “refuse illegal orders” from the Trump administration have received bomb threats, as of Saturday.

The new threats come after President Donald Trump accused the Dems of “seditious behavior” that was “punishable by death” in a post on Truth Social earlier this week.

Senator Elisa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan, received a bomb threat at her home on Friday. In a statement on X, a spokesperson for Slotkin said that she wasn’t home at the time, and that the police “searched the property and confirmed no one was in danger.”

The offices of representatives Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, and Chris Deluzio also received bomb threats, as well as Representative Maggie Goodlander’s local office in New Hampshire, according to Newsweek.

Last week, these lawmakers—all former military or intelligence community members—made a video directed at current members of the military, urging them to refuse illegal orders. “We need you to stand up for our laws, our constitution, and who we are as Americans,” they say in the video.

In response, Trump took to Truth Social in a rageful tirade. He retweeted a post saying, “Hang them, George Washington would.”

The president has spoken out against violent rhetoric and accused Democrats of inciting deadly violence with words, especially after the Charlie Kirk shooting. But it seems like political violence just doesn’t count when it’s being encouraged by the president.

Cop30, the U.N.’s annual climate summit that the U.S. failed to send a delegate to this year, nonetheless achieved something President Donald Trump would celebrate.

Delegates in Brazil reported that they had reached a tentative deal on Saturday, and while some important concessions were made, the final agreement doesn’t include a path away from fossil fuels, the single largest driver of global warming and man-made climate change.

More than 80 countries reportedly supported a roadmap to phase out the use of fossil fuels, but there wasn’t enough of a consensus to include it.

In what sounded like an act of desperation, Cop30 President André Corrêa do Lago said he would create a roadmap himself, but it’s unclear what this would achieve, as it would lack the binding power of an international agreement.

While the conference “delivered breakthroughs to triple adaptation finance, protect the world’s forests and elevate the voices of Indigenous people like never before,” the president and CEO of the World Resources Institute, Ani Dasgupta, said in a statement to ABC, “negotiators couldn’t agree to develop a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels. More than 80 countries stood their ground for a fair and equitable shift off fossil fuels, but intense lobbying from a few petrostates weakened the deal.”

President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement and has been a forceful advocate for oil and gas and coal. He also decided it was a waste of time to send a delegation to Brazil for the climate conference. (California Governor Gavin Newsom, for his part, decided to show up anyway.)

It’s unclear if an official U.S. delegation would have done more harm than good. But one thing is clear: an agreement that doesn’t propose a path away from international dependence on fossil fuels, as the climate worsens and the world literally burns around us, is almost completely pointless.

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social Saturday morning to share his thoughts on his former ally’s shocking resignation. 

“Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown, because of PLUMMETING Poll Numbers, and not wanting to face a Primary Challenger with a strong Trump Endorsement (where she would have no chance of winning!), has decided to call it ‘quits,’” he wrote, alleging that Greene was too cowardly to run without his backing. 

However, after that barrage of insults, he concluded the post on a positive note: “Nevertheless, I will always appreciate  Marjorie, and thank her for her service to our Country!”

Not many Republicans have weighed in yet on Greene’s exit, but one of Trump’s most loyal attack dogs has been predictably rabid: Laura Loomer.

Starting by taking credit for MTG’s resignation (via the now-familiar “Loomered” post), the far-right personality has since accused Greene of getting paid to “screw Trump over ahead of 2026,” of wanting “Trump to chase her,” and of displaying “typical victim female energy.” 

Loomer and Greene had been feuding for months, partially stemming from Loomer’s unabashed support for Israel and Greene’s push to stop arming the country as it carries out a genocide. 

Loomer wasn’t coy about her glee at her political opponent’s resignation, posting, “Her life being made miserable this last week makes me happy. Traitor Greene is a terrible person. I get a lot of joy in watching my enemies fall.”

On the other hand, Representative Thomas Massie posted a kind tribute to Greene. “I’m very sad for our country but so happy for my friend Marjorie. I’ll miss her tremendously,” he said. Massie was one of Greene’s only allies in the Republican party in attempting to release the Epstein files, and has similarly been targeted by the president for his efforts.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went on Fox News to attempt to explain the sudden warmth between two political adversaries—but can chemistry ever, truly be explained?

After President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met at the White House on Friday, Trump appeared to fawn over Mamdani in front of the press. The president later posted several photos of the two together on his Truth Social account.

MAGA world—and the much of the Internet—was shocked, as Trump and Mamdani have been insulting each other for months. Memes and media coverage mocking a beaming Trump, casting him as weak and easily fooled by the Democratic Socialist’s apparent abundance of charm, spread quickly.

But Leavitt was having none of it.

“It really proved that President Trump is willing to meet with anybody, to sit across the table, shake hands, look anybody in the eye,” Leavitt gushed. “Of course he wants New York to succeed, he wants all of Americans to succeed,” she continued. “The president wants this country to come together, and you saw that in full display in the Oval Office.”

Never mind that mere days before, Trump had called for Democrats to be hanged for a video message urging the military to honor the Constitution over the president’s orders, a message which he called seditious.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity pushed back on Leavitt’s glib narrative, pointing out that the two politicians had diametrically opposed views on most issues.

“Where do you meet in the middle there?” he asked.

“I think today’s meeting between the president and mayor elect was a good first step … but it doesn’t mean that President Trump is going to change his values,” Leavitt said. She went on to laud Trump for several (questionable) accomplishments on the economy. “Who knows? Maybe Mayor Mamdani will go back to New York, and maybe he learned a few things from President Trump today,” she said brightly—an extremely unlikely possibility.

The president, for all his love of fealty in others, isn’t terribly consistent with his own affections. He did truly seem to be enamored with Mamdani, who he’s called “my little communist mayor” in the past. We’ll see how long the honeymoon phase lasts.