Live election results: Primary day 2025 in Virginia
Election results courtesy Decision Desk HQ
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Official fired during Trump's first term appointed president of embattled US Institute of Peace
A senior State Department official who was fired as a speechwriter during President Donald Trump 's first term and has a history of incendiary statements has been appointed to lead the embattled U.S. Institute of Peace. The move to install Darren Beattie as the institute's new acting president is seen as the latest step in the administration's efforts to dismantle the embattled organization, which was founded as an independent, non-profit think tank. It is funded by Congress to promote peace and prevent and end conflicts across the globe. The battle is currently being played out in court. Beattie, who currently serves as the under secretary for public diplomacy at the State Department and will continue on in that role, was fired during Donald Trump's first term after CNN reported that he had spoken at a 2016 conference attended by white nationalists. He defended the speech he delivered as containing nothing objectionable. A former academic who taught at Duke University, Beattie also founded a right-wing website that shared conspiracies about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and has a long history of posting inflammatory statements on social media. 'Competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work,' he wrote on October 2024. 'Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities, and demoralizing competent white men.' A State Department official confirmed Beattie's appointment by the USIP board of directors, which currently includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. '(W)e look forward to seeing him advance President Trump's America First agenda in this new role,' they said. The USPI has been embroiled in turmoil since Trump moved to dismantle it shortly after taking office as part of his broader effort to shrink the size of the federal government and eliminate independent agencies. Trump issued an executive order in February that targeted the organization and three other agencies for closure. The first attempt by the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly under the command of tech billionaire Elon Musk, to take over its headquarters led to a dramatic standoff. Members of Musk's group returned days later with the FBI and Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police to help them gain entry. The administration fired most of the institute's board, followed by the mass firing of nearly all of its 300 employees in what they called 'the Friday night massacre.' The institute and many of its board members sued the Trump administration in March, seeking to prevent their removal and to prevent DOGE from taking over the institute's operations. DOGE transferred administrative oversight of the organization's headquarters and assets to the General Services Administration that weekend. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell overturned those actions in May, concluding that Trump was outside his authority in firing the board and its acting president and that, therefore, all subsequent actions were also moot. Her ruling allowed the institute to regain control of its headquarters in a rare victory for the agencies and organizations that have been caught up in the Trump administration's downsizing. The employees were rehired, although many did not return to work because of the complexity of restarting operations. They received termination orders — for the second time, however, — after an appeals court stayed Howell's order. Most recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the U.S. Institute of Peace's request for a hearing of the full court to lift the stay of a three-judge panel in June. That stay led to the organization turning its headquarters back over to the Trump Administration. In a statement, George Foote, former counsel for the institute, said Beattie's appointment 'flies in the face of the values at the core of USIP's work and America's commitment to working respectfully with international partners' and also called it 'illegal under Judge Howell's May 19 decision.' 'We are committed to defending that decision against the government's appeal. We are confident that we will succeed on the merits of our case, and we look forward to USIP resuming its essential work in Washington, D.C. and in conflict zones around the world,' he said.
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
CNN Analyst Stunned After Trump Botches 'Easiest Question In Human History'
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig was blown away after hearing President Donald Trump's answer to a question about whether he would pardon convicted sex trafficker and close Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. 'It's the easiest question in human history,' Honig told host Michael Smerconish on Saturday, quoting colleague Kevin Liptak as appropriately asking, 'Are you kidding me?' Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. On Friday, following the news that the Justice Department's No. 2 official had met with Maxwell in federal prison, a reporter asked Trump if he would consider a pardon or commutation for her. 'It's something I haven't thought about,' Trump replied. 'I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about.' Honig expressed bewilderment at the answer. 'A pardon for the single worst, or No. 2 after Jeffrey Epstein, worst child sex trafficker in modern history?' he said. 'Absolutely not. N-O.' Ultimately, Honig said it was 'hard to imagine' that Trump would pardon Maxwell, though he noted 'other people who I know who are closer to Donald Trump and who have worked with him in the past say it could well happen.' Trump is facing escalating demands to release the files related to the case against the late Epstein, as the press continues to dig into his past friendship with the disgraced financier. The president left the country on Friday for a golf-heavy trip to Scotland, and was bombarded with questions about Epstein from reporters before takeoff and after touchdown. Related... Trump Claims He 'Never Went' To Epstein's Island, Tells People To Focus On Bill Clinton Instead Joe Rogan On Trump Administration's Handling Of Epstein Files: 'Do You Think We're Babies?' Trump's Calendar Girls Party Had Only 1 Other Guest: Jeffrey Epstein
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Illinois landlord who killed 6-year-old Muslim boy in 2023 hate crime has died, police say
The Brief Joseph Czuba, the suburban landlord convicted of killing a Muslim boy in a 2023 hate crime, has died, police say. It was unclear exactly what led to Czuba's death. He was convicted earlier this year of killing Wadea Al-Fayoume and attacking his mother in Will County. Joseph Czuba, the Will County landlord who was convicted of murdering 6-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoume and attacking his mother in a 2023 hate crime, has died. What we know A Will County Sheriff's official confirmed Czuba's death and said they were notified by the Illinois Department of Corrections on behalf of the boy's mother, Hanan Shaheen. It was unclear exactly when or how the 73-year-old died. The backstory Czuba was convicted of first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated battery, and committing a hate crime in connection with the death of Al-Fayoume and the stabbing of his mother in October 2023. Authorities said Czuba targeted the family because they were Muslim, and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, with a Hamas attack on Israel. The attack took place inside Czuba's Plainfield Township home, where the victims had been his tenants for more than two years. Prosecutors said Czuba, influenced by inflammatory media and political rhetoric, turned violent just days after the Israel-Hamas war began and stabbed Al-Fayoume to death and seriously injured his mother. "He told me, 'You, as a Muslim, must die,'" Shaheen said during the trial, describing how Czuba attacked her with a knife and left her bloodied before she locked herself inside a bathroom and called 911 as her son screamed from another room. During the trial, jurors watched a police video of Czuba who spoke unprompted about the attack. "I was afraid they were going to do Jihad on me," he said, later referring to Muslims as "infested rats." DNA evidence, witness testimony, and the recovery of the bloodied knife supported the prosecution's case. The crime garnered national headlines as hate crimes targeting Muslims and Jewish communities surged in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas and subsequent Israeli campaign in Gaza. Just last month, community members in Plainfield unveiled a statue depicting Al-Fayoume's silhouette at a park the boy used to play at.
