
Trump signs order to raise national park fees for foreign visitors
The additional revenue generated by higher fees from foreign tourists will raise hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation and deferred maintenance projects to improve national parks, the White House said in a statement.
The executive order directs the Interior Department, parent agency of the Park Service, to increase entrance fees paid by park visitors from abroad, but does not say by how much or when the rates would go into effect.
It also directs the Park Service to ensure that U.S. residents receive priority access over foreign visitors in any of its permitting or reservation systems.
Currently, U.S. citizens in effect pay more than foreign tourists to visit the nation's scenic natural wonders and historic landmarks because their admissions fees and a portion of their U.S. tax dollars support the cost of national parks, the statement said.
The executive order comes as the Trump administration has proposed cutting more than $1 billion from the Park Service budget in fiscal 2026, which would represent a reduction of more than a third of the agency's budget from the prior year.
The administration's cuts to the federal workforce have already aggravated a staff shortage in national parks across the country.
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The Independent
26 minutes ago
- The Independent
Putin may be mocking Trump over Ukraine – but the US president won't do anything about it
European leaders have redoubled their efforts to prise Donald Trump away from Russia by warning that the US president is being 'mocked' by Vladimir Putin, alleging that Moscow is using chemical weapons in Ukraine and demanding that the US restore weapons supplies to Kyiv. The move came after Ukraine said it had endured the biggest overnight air attack of the entire war, with swarms of 500 drones and missiles intended to overwhelm already stretched air defences. Radek Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, called for the US to end its suspension of air defence missiles and other weapons – most of which are on standby for delivery to Poland –and derided Trump's fruitless efforts to secure a ceasefire. 'Mr Trump, Putin is mocking your peace efforts,' said the Oxford-educated Sikorski. In addition, the Dutch and German governments said their intelligence services had evidence of widespread use of chemical choking agents (teargas) against Ukrainian trenches by Russian troops. These have been used to force soldiers into the open where they could be shot by Putin's forces. 'This intensification is concerning because it is part of a trend we have been observing for several years now, where Russia's use of chemical weapons in this war is becoming more normalised, standardised, and widespread," said the Dutch defence minister Ruben Brekelmans. With the recent US focus on its attacks on Iran in support of Israel, Russia has been gradually stepping up efforts against Kyiv. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been warning for weeks that his country faces a critical shortage of defensive weapons, so the announcement that the US is suspending promised weapons such Patriot air defence missiles will inevitably entrench the already strong belief that Trump has taken Putin's side after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and that the US is no longer a real ally in the defence of Europe. Pentagon officials suggested the suspension was a 'pause' in delivery of Patriots, precision artillery and Hellfire missiles mounted on Ukrainian F-16 aircraft as part of a review of US supplies worldwide. But the US has not declared a pause in supply to any other nation. Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid by far and has recently enjoyed an uptick in supplies of bombs and missiles even as it stands accused by the United Nations of 'ethnic cleansing' and its prime minister has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. Trump has been trying to secure a ceasefire in the Ukraine war for months. Despite Kyiv offering a 30-day pause in fighting, Putin has repeatedly made it clear that Russia is not interested while it pursues a summer offensive to carve out the east of Ukraine. Trump has suggested he is frustrated by Putin but has threatened the Russian president with no definitive sanctions. Kyiv, however, has endured having its intelligence feed from the US blinded during the Russian counterattacks to retake Kursk, seen military aid suspended, been offered no new promises of support, and forced into a mineral deal that trades future US weapons for mining profits. In March, Trump said he was very angry and 'pissed off' after the Russian president continued to swerve his attempts to get Moscow to agree a ceasefire. The pair spoke again at length on Thursday in what turned out to be, from the Oval Office perspective, another unsatisfactory call. When asked if he had any success with Putin on Ukraine, Trump was clear: 'No, I didn't make any progress with him today at all... I'm not happy about that. I'm not happy about that.' But again there was still no sign that the US was going to lift its suspension of military aid to Ukraine, let alone increase it to try to force Russia to negotiate a workable ceasefire. So Russia continues its grinding offensive, claiming this week to have captured all of Luhansk province, which it has already illegally annexed. As a precondition to any ceasefire, Putin has demanded he keep at least Luhansk, Crimea, Kherson, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia provinces. The US has largely accepted this position as a 'given' and further insisted that in any long-term peace deal Ukraine is prevented from joining Nato and will not get security guarantees from the US to defend its future borders. So Nato's European and Canadian members are now planning, training and producing weapons to fill an American void that is widening. Kyiv has held on in spite of the massive air attacks and 'meat grinder' Russian land assaults, largely because of its superiority in drone technology. But Moscow has now forged ahead with the development of long-range wire-guided first-person view (FPV) drones and is developing AI weapons. For the last year or so Russian drone pilots have been using civilians in Kherson as target practice on training operations, with FPV drones killing several people most weeks. 'It won't be long before we see people being hunted through the streets of Kyiv by AI drones in swarms. We need to defeat Russia before that happens,' said a senior officer in Ukraine's drone warfare operations.


Times
33 minutes ago
- Times
Israel resumes Gaza ceasefire talks despite ‘unacceptable' Hamas demands
An Israeli delegation arrived in Doha to discuss a ceasefire in Gaza as Binyamin Netanyahu headed to Washington for a meeting with the US president. 'I'm determined to bring everyone back and to ensure that Gaza won't be a threat to Israel, Netanyahu said as he boarded the plane, in a nod to Israel's war goals of both freeing the hostages and crushing Hamas. On Sunday, the Israeli prime minister's office said Hamas was seeking to make changes to the draft deal that were 'unacceptable', but Israel still sent a mission to the Qatari capital to continue negotiations. Netanyahu said Israel's delegation could achieve an agreement, but only under the conditions accepted by Israel, adding that 'the discussion with President Trump can certainly help advance these results'. The deal, backed by Qatar and the US, sets out a staged release of some Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. It proposes the release of ten hostages and the bodies of 18 who have died in exchange for a large number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as more than 1,000 Gazan detainees who have not been accused of any crime. The staged release — a clause intended to allow Israel the option to resume fighting during the 60 days of truce, and for Hamas to keep hold of the hostages as a guarantee Israel will not — has come under criticism from the majority of the Israeli public, who want to stop the war. The group representing the families of most the hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, termed the staged release 'Schindler's list', referring to Oskar Schindler's list of Jewish employees he saved from being sent to concentration camps. They said everyone must be brought home at once. 'At this critical time, it is forbidden to conform to the various Schindler's lists being dictated, as if it was impossible to bring them all back a long time ago,' the group said. The staged release is a tactical step for both sides, one expert in Palestinian affairs at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Dr Ronni Shaked, said, and will not lead to the permanent end of the war civilians on both sides want. 'It's going to give for the both sides the reason to continue. Hamas is not going to give back the soldiers that were kidnapped. They will give everybody else, the bodies of the Israeli civilians, but not the soldiers,' Shaked, who is a senior correspondent on Palestinian affairs for the Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, said. 'They know the price they can ask for soldiers — similar to what they asked for in the Shalit deal in 2011. So they are waiting to stop the war and [the withdrawal] of the Israeli army from Gaza. But Bibi [Netanyahu] is not going to give it, and Bibi is not going to give it to even to Trump,' said Shaked. In 2011, one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, was released for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including Yahya Sinwar — the mastermind of the October 7 attack that led to the war. Netanyahu and Trump will meet on Monday. The previous deal, similar to the current draft agreement, saw the far-right cabinet member Itamar Ben-Gvir quit the government, only to rejoin when the fighting resumed. He and other hardline ministers have threatened to do the same again after the cabinet voted on Sunday to allow in more aid to the Gaza Strip. The threat of collapse for any partial deal has precedent. Israel's government resumed fighting after the last ceasefire deal in March, when it chose not to move forward with a second phase of the agreement that called for discussions for permanent end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. 'The cabinet and the prime minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas,' Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the finance ministry, said on Sunday. The distribution of humanitarian aid is one of the conditions for Hamas in the current agreement, reportedly demanding an end to the controversial US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund. 'While the leaders in Doha are bargaining with mediators to what line the Israeli withdrawal will be, and being stubborn [about] who will give out food, our people are hungry for food and ceasefire. The disconnection of the external leadership is costing … more land and casualties every day,' a source familiar with the discussions told The Times. Last week, Trump promised a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would see Hamas release hostages and end the long war. However, the current deal does not outline a plan for the future control and governance of Gaza. On Sunday, the Bedouin Gazan gang leader Yasser Abu Shabab, said that he wanted to confront Hamas over their rule of the Palestinian territory. 'We've tasted the bitterness and injustice inflicted on us by Hamas, and we've taken it upon ourselves to confront this aggression. We don't rule out confrontation with Hamas and we don't rule out civil war, no matter the cost,' Abu Shabab said to Makan, an Arabic language radio station on Israel's public broadcaster, stopping short of admitting to working with Israeli forces as alleged by officials inside Israel. Abu Shabab has been widely condemned by much of Gazan society for his connection to drug and arms dealing, and has been accused of links to Islamic State in the Sinai desert. Yet Israel's efforts to strengthen non-Hamas forces in Gaza are being echoed in the West Bank, where clan leaders in the southern part of the Palestinian territory reportedly offered to recognise Israel and break away from the Palestinian Authority, which partially rules the area and does not accept Israel as a Jewish state. 'We want co-operation with Israel,' Sheik Wadee' al-Jaabari was quoted by the Wall Street Journal as writing to Israel's minister of economy, Nir Barkat, adding that Hebron could become an emirate of its own and join the Abraham Accords alongside other states formally hostile to Israel. The expansion of the Abraham Accords has been touted by the US as the prize for Israel to end its war on Gaza. But while talks in Doha continue, Israel has continued to intensify its operations in Gaza in an apparent effort to force Hamas to capitulate to a better deal. About 80 people have been killed and more than 300 wounded since Saturday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, eight of whom were shot near the currently closed aid distribution centres. The fighting has killed more than 55,000 people in nearly two years. More than 400 members of the Israeli military have been killed, including a soldier killed in southern Gaza on Friday.


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's DOJ issues final verdict on Jeffrey Epstein in attempt to silence swirling conspiracy theories
The FBI and the Department of Justice under Donald Trump have determined Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide and the fabled 'client list' does not exist. Sentiment was widely shared online that Epstein's 2019 death was made to look like a suicide, but was actually a murder meant to prevent him from revealing his client list or co-conspirators in the pedophilic sex trafficking conspiracy. Now, the administration is publishing a memo and plans to release a video showing their findings, backing Epstein's death as ruled by the medical examiner as a suicide by hanging. To prove that, they will put out a 'raw' and 'enhanced' video clip they say shows that nobody entered Epstein's cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center on the night he died. Investigators looked at footage from the night of August 9, 2019 at 10:40pm, when Epstein was locked in his cell until the next morning at around 6:30am, when he was found unconscious. 'The FBI enhanced the relevant footage by increasing its contrast, balancing the color, and improving its sharpness for greater clarity and viewability,' the memo reads. They also saw 'no credible evidence' that the billionaire pedophile had blackmailed 'prominent individuals' and found no 'client list.' Elon Musk had infamously alleged that Trump was 'in the Epstein files' during his wild crash-out feud with the president. No 'further disclosure' of any Epstein information 'would be appropriate or warranted,' according to the memo obtained by Axios. They said they don't want the child sex abuse material and details of Epstein's victims to meet the public. 'Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography,' it adds. The memo from the FBI and DOJ announced that no one involved in the Epstein case will follow former right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell to prison, as no further charges will be filed. Epstein's death led to several conspiracy theories and a general hunger for knowledge regarding his crimes. Pam Bondi began what she called 'phase one' of releasing the long-awaited, mysterious files related to pedophile financier in February . The first wave of documents have largely been circulating in the public domain for years and so far are yet to include any new bombshells, leading to great disappointment from the public. 'What you're going to see, hopefully tomorrow, is a lot of flight logs, a lot of names, a lot of information,' Bondi previewed on Fox Wednesday. 'But, it's pretty sick what that man did, along with his co-defendant,' referring to Ghislaine Maxwell. The officially declassified material included flight logs, Epstein's infamous contact book, an evidence list and a masseuse list in ten different links posted to the Department of Justice website. The contact list, which has previously circulated in various forms, shows redacted information for dozens of the Hollywood, political and fashion elite and was purportedly compiled by Epstein and his longtime confidante Maxwell. Personal contact information was redacted throughout the list. FBI Director Kash Patel had been a skeptic of the official findings behind Epstein's death, however, he told Joe Rogan that since he'd taken over the bureau, he hadn't found 'what you want,' which he described as 'some guy or gal committing felonies.' 'If I had it, I'd be the first guy to bring this case hard and fast,' Patel claimed. He added that his team at the FBI has viewed everything they have been given lawful access to from the infamous island. Epstein's 'pedo island' aka Little Saint James in the US Virgin Islands was a focal point of his horrific child-sex-trafficking operation. It has long been believed that Epstein hosted a wide array of rich and famous clients at the island. Patel said that the bureau is doing the best that they can and encouraged anyone with information to get in touch. 'I got here 100 days ago. I can't be held to account for 20 years of failures,' he said. Though Patel claimed that his FBI will 'give you everything we can' he does have some boundaries set around Epstein's victims. 'Remember, we're not gonna' re-victimize women. We're not gonna' put that s*** back out there. It's not happening because then, he wins.' Epstein took his own life in jail on August 10, 2019, awaiting trial for sex trafficking and other heinous crimes. The well-connected financier and Maxwell kept a wide circle of friends from fellow billionaires to politicians like Trump and Clinton, and entertainment icons. Maxwell herself is the daughter of the late British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who once owned the New York Daily News. Epstein flew numerous well-heeled friends to his private Caribbean island, Little Saint James, where some of them sexually abused children. Many Americans have been waiting for the lengthy FBI investigation files to be released publicly after Trump promised to do so. Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, Epstein´s criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests. In January 2024, a court unsealed a trove of documents that had been collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre. The unorthodox move followed other Trump Administration efforts to empower fringe social media figures and highly partisan outlets that enthusiastically support him, at the expense of the more critical mainstream media. President Trump signed an executive order in January calling on agencies to create plans to release and distribute top-secret documents including on Epstein as well as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights maverick Martin Luther King Jr. Lawyers for Epstein have disputed the ruling as public skepticism over his death grew in recent years, resulting in numerous conspiracy theories. The possibility of pursuing criminal charges died along with Epstein, so a judge dismissed the case on August 29, 2019 – less than three weeks after he was found hanging in his jail cell. British socialite Maxwell had a decades-long association with Epstein and was convicted in 2021 on federal charges for sex trafficking after she recruited young girls for the pedophilic ring, as well as child sex abuse and prostitution Her procurement for Epstein included bringing into the folds of the conspiracy a 14-year-old girl. Epstein had a private jet that he logged 600 flying hours on each year, usually with guests on board as part of the manifest. The Boeing 727 was nicknamed the Lolita Express by locals in the Virgin Islands because of its frequent arrivals allegedly with young girls on board. Lolita has multiple meanings, including a term for a young girl.