Overseas Firms to Pay $451.6 Million in US Bogus Options Case
The penalty was imposed by Judge Jeremy Daniel of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois after the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2019 accused the firms and their leaders of peddling illegal, off-channel options trades that led to customers losing millions of dollars.
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The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
Families of Americans slain in the West Bank lose hope for justice
BIDDU, West Bank (AP) — When Sayfollah Musallet of Tampa, Florida, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank two weeks ago, he became the fourth Palestinian-American killed in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza began. No one has been arrested or charged in Musallet's slaying – and if Israel's track record on the other three deaths is any guide, it seems unlikely to happen. Yet Musallet's father and a growing number of U.S. politicians want to flip the script. 'We demand justice,' Kamel Musallet said at his 20-year-old son's funeral earlier this week. 'We demand the U.S. government do something about it.' Still, Musallet and relatives of the other Palestinian-Americans say they doubt anyone will be held accountable, either by Israel or the U.S. They believe the first word in their hyphenated identity undercuts the power of the second. And they say Israel and its law enforcement have made them feel like culprits — by imposing travel bans and, in some cases, detaining and interrogating them. Although the Trump administration has stopped short of promising investigations of its own, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has urged Israel to investigate the circumstances of each American's death. Writing on X on July 15, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he'd asked Israel to 'aggressively investigate the murder' of Musallet and that 'there must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act.' Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and 28 other Democratic senators have also called for an investigation. In a letter this week to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi, they pointed to the 'repeated lack of accountability' after the deaths of Musallet and other Americans killed in the West Bank. Israel's military, police and Shin Bet domestic security agency did not respond to requests for comment about the Palestinian-Americans' deaths. Families have demanded independent investigations American-born teenagers Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour were killed in early 2024 by Israeli fire while driving in the West Bank. In April 2025, 14-year-old Amer Rabee, a New Jersey native, was shot in the head at least nine times by Israeli forces, according to his father, as he stood among a grove of green almond trees in his family's village. In the immediate aftermath of both cases, Israeli authorities said that forces had fired on rock throwers, allegations disputed by the families and by testimony obtained by the AP. Israel pledged to investigate the cases further, but has released no new findings. The teens' families told the AP they sought independent investigations by American authorities, expressing doubts that Israel would investigate in good faith. According to the Israeli watchdog group Yesh Din, killings of Palestinians in the West Bank rarely result in investigations — and when they do, indictments are uncommon. The U.S. Justice Department has jurisdiction to investigate the deaths of its own citizens abroad, but does so after it gets permission from the host government and usually works with the host country's law enforcement. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem declined to say whether the U.S. has launched independent probes into the killings. A spokesperson for the embassy said in a statement that investigations are 'underway' in Israel over the deaths of the four Americans and that its staff is pressing the Israeli authorities to move quickly and transparently. In a statement to AP, the embassy spokesperson said, 'We continue to press for full, transparent, and rapid investigations in each case and understand that they are underway' in Israel adding that consular staff were in regular communication with Israeli authorities. Sen. Van Hollen said that when the U.S deals with Israel it 'either doesn't pursue these cases with the vigor necessary, or we don't get any serious cooperation.' 'And then instead of demanding cooperation and accountability, we sort of stop — and that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable to allow American citizens to be killed with impunity,' the Maryland Democrat said. Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers accountable Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers to account under the bounds of the law, and that the lack of indictments does not mean a lack of effort. A prominent recent case was the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist for broadcaster Al Jazeera killed in the West Bank in 2022. An independent U.S. analysis of the circumstances of her death found that fire from an Israeli soldier was 'likely responsible' for her killing but said it appeared to be an accident. Despite an Israeli military investigation with similar conclusions, no one was ever disciplined. Violence by Israeli forces and settlers has flared in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. More than 950 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza, according to the United Nations. Some have been militants killed in fighting with Israel, though the dead have also included stone-throwers and bystanders uninvolved in violence. Instead of justice, restrictions and detentions Rather than a path toward justice, the families of Khdour, Rabee, and Abdel Jabbar say they've faced only challenges since the deaths. Khdour, born in Miami, Florida, was shot and killed in April 2024 while driving in Biddu, a West Bank town near Jerusalem where he lived since age 2. U.S. investigators visited his family after the killing, his family said. Abdel Jabbar was killed while driving down a dirt road close to Al Mazra as-Sharqiya, his village in the northern West Bank. Khdour's cousin, Malek Mansour, the sole witness, told the AP he was questioned by both Israeli and American investigators and repeated his testimony that shots came from a white pickup on Israeli territory. He believes the investigators did not push hard enough to figure out who killed his cousin. 'The matter ended like many of those who were martyred (killed),' said Hanan Khdour, Khdour's mother. Two months after the death, Israeli forces raided the family's home and detained Mohammad's brother, Omar Khdour, 23, also an American citizen. Videos taken by family and shared with the AP show Omar Khdour blindfolded and handcuffed as Israeli soldiers in riot gear lead him out of the building and into a military jeep. He said he was threatened during questioning, held from 4 am to 3 pm, and warned not to pursue the case. 'Here, being American means nothing' Omar Khdour said Israeli soldiers at checkpoints have prevented him from leaving the West Bank to visit Israel or Jerusalem. Two other American fathers of Palestinian-Americans killed since Oct. 7, 2023 reported similar restrictions. Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar's father, said he and his wife were blocked from leaving the West Bank for seven months. His son, Amir Abdel Jabbar, 22, remains restricted. The father of Amer Rabee says he and his wife have also been stuck in the West Bank since their son's killing. He showed AP emails from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in which a consular official told him that Israel had imposed a travel ban on him, though it was unclear why. Israeli authorities did not respond to comment on the detentions or travel restrictions. Rabee said that in a land where violence against Palestinians goes unchecked, his family's American passports amounted to nothing more than a blue book. 'We are all American citizens,' Rabee said. 'But here, for us, being American means nothing.'
Hamilton Spectator
4 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Families of Americans slain in the West Bank lose hope for justice
BIDDU, West Bank (AP) — When Sayfollah Musallet of Tampa, Florida, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank two weeks ago, he became the fourth Palestinian-American killed in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza began. No one has been arrested or charged in Musallet's slaying – and if Israel's track record on the other three deaths is any guide, it seems unlikely to happen. Yet Musallet's father and a growing number of U.S. politicians want to flip the script. 'We demand justice,' Kamel Musallet said at his 20-year-old son's funeral earlier this week. 'We demand the U.S. government do something about it.' Still, Musallet and relatives of the other Palestinian-Americans say they doubt anyone will be held accountable, either by Israel or the U.S. They believe the first word in their hyphenated identity undercuts the power of the second. And they say Israel and its law enforcement have made them feel like culprits — by imposing travel bans and, in some cases, detaining and interrogating them. Although the Trump administration has stopped short of promising investigations of its own, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has urged Israel to investigate the circumstances of each American's death. Writing on X on July 15, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he'd asked Israel to 'aggressively investigate the murder' of Musallet and that 'there must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act.' Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and 28 other Democratic senators have also called for an investigation. In a letter this week to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi, they pointed to the 'repeated lack of accountability' after the deaths of Musallet and other Americans killed in the West Bank. Israel's military, police and Shin Bet domestic security agency did not respond to requests for comment about the Palestinian-Americans' deaths. Families have demanded independent investigations American-born teenagers Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour were killed in early 2024 by Israeli fire while driving in the West Bank . In April 2025, 14-year-old Amer Rabee, a New Jersey native, was shot in the head at least nine times by Israeli forces, according to his father, as he stood among a grove of green almond trees in his family's village. In the immediate aftermath of both cases, Israeli authorities said that forces had fired on rock throwers, allegations disputed by the families and by testimony obtained by the AP . Israel pledged to investigate the cases further, but has released no new findings. The teens' families told the AP they sought independent investigations by American authorities, expressing doubts that Israel would investigate in good faith. According to the Israeli watchdog group Yesh Din, killings of Palestinians in the West Bank rarely result in investigations — and when they do , indictments are uncommon. The U.S. Justice Department has jurisdiction to investigate the deaths of its own citizens abroad, but does so after it gets permission from the host government and usually works with the host country's law enforcement. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem declined to say whether the U.S. has launched independent probes into the killings. A spokesperson for the embassy said in a statement that investigations are 'underway' in Israel over the deaths of the four Americans and that its staff is pressing the Israeli authorities to move quickly and transparently. In a statement to AP, the embassy spokesperson said, 'We continue to press for full, transparent, and rapid investigations in each case and understand that they are underway' in Israel adding that consular staff were in regular communication with Israeli authorities. Sen. Van Hollen said that when the U.S deals with Israel it 'either doesn't pursue these cases with the vigor necessary, or we don't get any serious cooperation.' 'And then instead of demanding cooperation and accountability, we sort of stop — and that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable to allow American citizens to be killed with impunity,' the Maryland Democrat said. Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers accountable Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers to account under the bounds of the law, and that the lack of indictments does not mean a lack of effort. A prominent recent case was the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist for broadcaster Al Jazeera killed in the West Bank in 2022. An independent U.S. analysis of the circumstances of her death found that fire from an Israeli soldier was 'likely responsible' for her killing but said it appeared to be an accident. Despite an Israeli military investigation with similar conclusions, no one was ever disciplined. Violence by Israeli forces and settlers has flared in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. More than 950 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza, according to the United Nations. Some have been militants killed in fighting with Israel, though the dead have also included stone-throwers and bystanders uninvolved in violence. Instead of justice, restrictions and detentions Rather than a path toward justice, the families of Khdour, Rabee, and Abdel Jabbar say they've faced only challenges since the deaths. Khdour, born in Miami, Florida, was shot and killed in April 2024 while driving in Biddu, a West Bank town near Jerusalem where he lived since age 2. U.S. investigators visited his family after the killing, his family said. Abdel Jabbar was killed while driving down a dirt road close to Al Mazra as-Sharqiya, his village in the northern West Bank. Khdour's cousin, Malek Mansour, the sole witness, told the AP he was questioned by both Israeli and American investigators and repeated his testimony that shots came from a white pickup on Israeli territory. He believes the investigators did not push hard enough to figure out who killed his cousin. 'The matter ended like many of those who were martyred (killed),' said Hanan Khdour, Khdour's mother. Two months after the death, Israeli forces raided the family's home and detained Mohammad's brother, Omar Khdour, 23, also an American citizen. Videos taken by family and shared with the AP show Omar Khdour blindfolded and handcuffed as Israeli soldiers in riot gear lead him out of the building and into a military jeep. He said he was threatened during questioning, held from 4 am to 3 pm, and warned not to pursue the case. 'Here, being American means nothing' Omar Khdour said Israeli soldiers at checkpoints have prevented him from leaving the West Bank to visit Israel or Jerusalem. Two other American fathers of Palestinian-Americans killed since Oct. 7, 2023 reported similar restrictions. Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar's father, said he and his wife were blocked from leaving the West Bank for seven months. His son, Amir Abdel Jabbar, 22, remains restricted. The father of Amer Rabee says he and his wife have also been stuck in the West Bank since their son's killing. He showed AP emails from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in which a consular official told him that Israel had imposed a travel ban on him, though it was unclear why. Israeli authorities did not respond to comment on the detentions or travel restrictions. Rabee said that in a land where violence against Palestinians goes unchecked, his family's American passports amounted to nothing more than a blue book. 'We are all American citizens,' Rabee said. 'But here, for us, being American means nothing.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. 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Los Angeles Times
10 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘Kill them all': Sectarian violence turns Syrian city into a slaughterhouse
SWEIDA, Syria — The last thing Hatem Radhwan heard the fighters say was, 'Kill them all. We don't want them identifying us.' That's when the five gunmen, clad in desert camouflage uniforms and who claimed they were with Syria's Ministry of Defense, cocked their AK-47 rifles, shouted, 'You pigs!' and sprayed the room with bullets. Radhwan, a 70-year-old blacksmith, felt a bullet or a piece of debris — he couldn't tell — graze his upper lip. He fell to the ground as the gunmen continued to fire. Rashad Abu Saadeh, a neighbor who hid in his apartment across the street, heard the gunfire. 'For more than half a minute they kept shooting,' he said. 'It felt like a long, long time.' The killings at the Radhwan family salon were part of a paroxysm of sectarian violence that engulfed the Druze-majority city of Sweida last week. The fighting, which involved tank and mortar bombardment, summary executions and Israeli airstrikes, left some 1,380 dead, displaced more than 120,000 others — and turned what once was a well-appointed city, largely spared the ravages of Syria's 14-year civil war, into a slaughterhouse. 'There isn't a single home in the whole province that isn't grieving someone,' said Randa Mihrez, one of the coroners at Sweida National Hospital. A truce halted the clashes — which began this month between Bedouin clans and the Druze religious minority — but the tallying of the losses continues. Mihrez's colleague Akram Naim scrolled through images of the 509 corpses brought to the hospital's courtyard during the fighting. They were transferred to a mass grave on Wednesday after days of decomposing in the summer heat. 'The youngest victim was 3 months old, killed by shrapnel that hit her stomach,' he said. He clicked on another photo — a young girl, her head turned to the side, with a morose expression on her face. A scarlet line ran across her throat. 'This one was 14. She was slaughtered,' Naim said, his voice subdued. 'These are only the people we know about and who could reach us,' Mihrez said, adding that many victims were buried in makeshift graves near people's homes because the hospital had been surrounded during much of the battles. 'The final tally will be much worse,' he said. At the Radhwan house, the blacksmith finally dared to open his eyes five minutes after the gunmen left, only to find 17 of his family members bloodied around him. Thirteen were killed outright; four others survived but remain in critical condition, while a fifth relative died later. Radhwan was the only one mostly unharmed. 'They were screaming, and I tried to move them, to help them somehow. But I kept slipping on the blood,' Radhwan said, his gaze following the brown-red stain that crept from the couch down to the salon floor. 'One relative was bleeding out and barely alive. He was begging, 'Shoot me.' But I had no weapons on me. I would have done it otherwise,' he said. The crisis in Sweida, which comes at the heels of similar bouts of sectarian bloodshed against minorities by state-aligned groups, highlights the challenges facing interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who seized power in December after leading a coalition of rebel groups to topple longtime dictator Bashar Assad. Though he received support from President Trump — who fast-tracked the lifting of sanctions, reopened the U.S. Embassy in Damascus and dispatched an envoy who has championed the new government — Al-Sharaa has so far failed to convince rival factions to centralize under his authority, and his government forces have essentially aligned themselves with the Bedouins. Instead, the euphoria over Assad's ouster has been replaced by sense of foreboding among many Syrians, especially minorities, who distrust Al-Sharaa's Islamist past. More hard-line members of his faction, the onetime Al Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al Sham, view Druze as heretics who should be killed. That has been especially true for the Druze, adherents of a syncretic sect that is an offshoot of Shiite Islam who constitute some 3% of Syria's population. There are an estimated 1 million Druze worldwide, half of them in Syria and the rest in Lebanon, Israel and elsewhere. Many Syrian Druze speak proudly — and often — of their sect's role in building the country's nationalist consciousness, with families touting their filial link to Sultan Al-Atrash, a revolutionary who mounted an uprising against French rule in Syria in the 1920s. Sweida, both the city and the eponymously named province, are the only areas of the country with a Druze majority. During the civil war, Sweida kept a wary distance from both Assad and the opposition, and government allowed it some measure of autonomy. Since Assad's exit, prominent figures in the Druze community have sought to have a good relationship with Damascus, but the militias have rejected integration under Al-Sharaa's armed services, which they say are composed of unruly factions not totally under the interim leader's control. When tit-for-tat kidnappings and robberies between Bedouins and Druze escalated into open warfare this month, the government mobilized its forces to restore order. But Druze residents accused them of engaging in a sectarian killing rampage, and fought back. Israel, which since Assad's exit occupies wide swaths of its northern neighbor's border areas and has demanded south Syria be a demilitarized zone, responded to demands from its own Druze to protect their coreligionists and launched airstrikes targeting the Damascus headquarters of the Syrian army and the presidential palace. It also struck forces in Sweida, forcing them to withdraw. In the aftermath of those strikes, Al-Sharaa accused Israel of interfering in Syrian affairs and trying to keep the country weak. But on Thursday, the U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said he met with Syrian and Israeli officials in Paris to broker 'dialogue and de-escalation' — the first high-level talks between the two countries since 2000. 'And we accomplished precisely that. All parties reiterated their commitment to continuing these efforts,' Barrack wrote on X on Thursday. Meanwhile, the mood in the city of Sweida remains tense. Standing near the fire-blackened husk of an Israeli-hit tank, Yamen Zughayer, a Druze faction commander, looked down a road leading out of Sweida. 'There are still bodies of our people we can't get back. A sniper is waiting for us down there,' he said. He walked down a side street, pointing out the singed remains of houses that he said were torched by Bedouins and government-linked fighters. 'For 14 years of the war, nothing happened to Sweida. [For] three hours the government came in, and look what happened,' he said. Zughayer, a 35-year-old who usually worked as a car dealer, said the tragedies inflicted on Sweida proved Druze suspicious of Al-Sharaa were correct. 'What do you think would have happened if we didn't have our guns? We're sitting here talking to you because of them,' Zughayer said, adding that he wouldn't accept any solution that didn't involve the militiamen retaining their arms. Hashem Thabet, another fighter standing nearby, said although he did not want Israel controlling the territory, the actions of the Syrian government were driving Druze like him away. 'I don't care who comes to protect me as long as they do it. If it's Israel, then welcome Israel,' he said. The government, he added, is 'pushing us into its arms.' A few miles away from where he stood vigil, on a bare mountain outside Sweida's outskirts, Basel Abu Saab looked with grim satisfaction at the trench he had dug with his bulldozer — a mass grave for 149 people from the hospital who were either unidentified or whose families were unable to bury them. 'Initially, we wanted to bury them in the hospital's backyard, but administrators worried we'd contaminate the water reservoir,' Abu Saab said. 'The bodies were decomposing too much in the sun, they were becoming unrecognizable. We just couldn't wait anymore.' Yes, the location chosen for the mass grave was far from the city, he added, but it also was far from the fighting. Abu Saab trudged back to the nearby road, walking around a pit where he had buried the blood-soiled body bags, his nose wrinkling at the scent. From the pit's edge, the edge of a hospital garment peeked out, fluttering erratically in the dusk breeze.
