Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes

Category: Wires

  • Hegseth says he won’t publicly release video of boat that killed survivors in the Caribbean

    Hegseth says he won’t publicly release video of boat that killed survivors in the Caribbean

    WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday the Pentagon will not publicly release unedited video of a U.S. military strike that killed two survivors of an initial attack on a boat allegedly carrying cocaine in the Caribbean, as questions mounted in Congress about the incident and the overall buildup of U.S. military forces near Venezuela.

    Hegseth said members of the Armed Services Committee in the House and Senate would have an opportunity this week to review the video, but did not say whether all members of Congress would be allowed to see it as well.

    “Of course we’re not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public,” Hegseth told reporters as he exited a closed-door briefing with senators.

    President Donald Trump’s cabinet members overseeing national security were on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to defend a campaign that has killed at least 95 people in 25 known strikes on vessels in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Overall, they defended the campaign as a success, saying it has prevented drugs from reaching American shores, and they pushed back on concerns that it is stretching the bounds of lawful warfare.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters the campaign is a “counter-drug mission” that is “focused on dismantling the infrastructure of these terrorist organizations that are operating in our hemisphere, undermining the security of Americans, killing Americans, poisoning Americans.”

    Lawmakers have been focused on the Sept. 2 attack on two survivors as they sift through the rationale for a broader U.S. military buildup in the region. On the eve of the briefings, the U.S. military said it attacked three more boats believed to have been smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing eight people.

    Lawmakers left in the dark about Trump’s goal with Venezuela

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Hegseth had come “empty-handed” to the briefing, without a pledge to more broadly release the video of the Sept. 2 strike.

    “If they can’t be transparent on this, how can you trust their transparency on all the other issues swirling about in the Caribbean?” Schumer said.

    Senators on both sides of the aisle said the officials left them in the dark about Trump’s goals when it comes to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro or sending U.S. forces directly to the South American nation.

    “I want to address the question: Is it the goal to take him out? If it’s not the goal to take him out, you’re making a mistake,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who defended the legality of the campaign and said he wanted to see Maduro removed from power.

    The U.S. has deployed warships, flown fighter jets near Venezuelan airspace, and seized an oil tanker as part of its campaign against Maduro, who has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office. Maduro said on a weekly state television show Monday that his government still does not know the whereabouts of the tanker’s crew. He criticized the United Nations for not speaking out against what he described as an “act of piracy” against “a private ship carrying Venezuelan oil.”

    In a social media post Tuesday night, Trump said he is ordering a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” entering and leaving Venezuela. Trump alleged Venezuela was using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to escalate the military buildup.

    Trump’s Republican administration has not sought any authorization from Congress for action against Venezuela. The go-it-alone approach has led to problematic military actions, experts say, none more so than the strike that killed two people who had climbed atop part of a boat that had been partially destroyed in an initial attack.

    “If it’s not a war against Venezuela, then we’re using armed force against civilians who are just committing crimes,” said John Yoo, a Berkeley Law professor who helped craft the George W. Bush administration’s legal arguments and justification for aggressive interrogation after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “Then this question, this worry, becomes really pronounced. You know, you’re shooting civilians. There’s no military purpose for it.”

    Yet for the first several months, Congress received little more than a trickle of information about why or how the U.S. military was conducting the operations. At times, lawmakers have learned of strikes from social media after the Pentagon posted videos of boats bursting into flames.

    Hegseth now faces language included in an annual military policy bill that threatens to withhold a quarter of his travel budget if the Pentagon does not provide unedited video of the strikes to the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services.

    The demand for release of video footage

    For some, the controversy over the footage demonstrates the flawed rationale behind the entire campaign.

    “The American public ought to see it. I think shooting unarmed people floundering in the water, clinging to wreckage, is not who we are as a people,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), who has been an outspoken critic of the campaign.

    But senators were told the Trump administration will not release all of the Sept. 2 attack footage because it would reveal U.S. military practices on intelligence gathering, said Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. She said the reasoning ignores the fact that the military has already released footage of the initial attack.

    “They just don’t want to reveal the part that suggests war crimes,” she said.

    Some GOP lawmakers are determined to dig into the details of the Sept. 2 attack. Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who ordered the second strike, was expected back on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for classified briefings with the Senate and House Armed Services Committees. The committees would also review video of the Sept. 2 strikes, Hegseth said.

    Still, many Republicans emerged from the briefings backing the campaign, defending their legality and praising the “exquisite intelligence” that is used to identify targets. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) called the strike in question “certainly appropriate” and “necessary to protect the United States and our interests.”

  • He survived the Holocaust and exile only to die a hero in Australia attack

    He survived the Holocaust and exile only to die a hero in Australia attack

    SYDNEY, Australia — Alexander Kleytman was just a boy when he fled the Holocaust and then endured a harrowing train journey to Siberia, where years of starvation left him permanently hunched. He suffered decades of antisemitism in the Soviet Union but never stopped being “a proud Jew,” his daughter, Sabina, recalled Tuesday.

    It was that pride that took him every year to the Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, where he had brought his family to live in 1992.

    And it was that pride — that identity — that made him, his wife, and scores of other Jewish Australians the target of Sunday’s deadly antisemitic attack, in which the 87-year-old was killed while shielding his wife, Larisa, from a hail of bullets.

    “Dad died doing what he loved the most,” Sabina Kleytman said in a tearful interview. “Protecting my mother — he probably saved her life — and standing up and being a proud Jew: lighting the light, bringing the light to this world.”

    Fifteen people were killed Sunday when two gunmen, apparently motivated by Islamic State ideology, opened fire on the festive gathering. Among the dead were a 10-year-old girl who had been happily eating cake moments earlier, an assistant rabbi known for his positivity, and a 62-year-old man who threw bricks at one of the gunmen in a desperate attempt to defend his community.

    But perhaps no death reflects the shock of the attack here in Australia more than that of Kleytman, who survived the Holocaust and a childhood of hardship only to die in the country he considered a safe haven.

    “He lived a remarkable life,” his daughter said, “and he could have had another 10 years in him if it wasn’t for this horrendous atrocity.”

    Australia has a long Jewish history dating to the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, said Andrew Markus, emeritus professor at Monash University in Melbourne and an expert on Jewish migration. But the biggest wave of Jewish immigrants came after World War II.

    “There were a lot of people who had the sense that Europe was the charnel house of the world after what had happened to them, so to get as far away as possible was one of the attractions of Australia,” he said.

    As in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel, which claimed some Holocaust survivors, there is a “tragic irony” in Kleytman’s death in a land that he and so many other Jews saw as their refuge, Markus said.

    In Australia, Kleytman became a collector of stories from Jews from the former Soviet Union, writing two books about them even as he resisted his family’s pleas to pen his own memoir.

    Still, snatches of that remarkable life filtered down in reluctantly told tales. He was born in 1938 in what is now Ukraine. When World War II broke out, he fled to Siberia with his parents and younger brother on a long and arduous journey with other evacuees.

    “They were on a train. There were bombs coming down. So many people died,” Sabina Kleytman said.

    Along the way, her father fell sick and had to be hospitalized. He was separated from his family and feared he would never see them again. But he managed to reunite with them and make it to Siberia, where they shared a tiny room.

    They had “very little food, almost no warmth,” his daughter said. Years of malnourishment and cramped conditions left her father partially deformed, she said.

    After the war, he was eventually able to move back to what is now Ukraine — then part of the Soviet Union — where he met Larisa, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. They had Sabina and her brother and built a life there, although they could not openly celebrate being Jewish, she said.

    In 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Alexander Kleytman took his family to Australia. There, the civil engineer built a successful career for himself, contributing to major projects, including Sydney’s Olympic stadium. He helped build his newfound home.

    He reluctantly retired a decade ago, at 76, and immediately turned his mind toward writing books.

    “He didn’t want to write a book about himself,” Sabina Kleytman said with a laugh. “We did ask many times. He didn’t want to do it. He wanted to write books about the lives of Jews in the Soviet Union and the terrible things which we went through.”

    It was in Australia that her father could finally fully celebrate his Jewish pride, she said. But in the two years since the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, he began to worry that Australia was becoming less safe for Jews.

    On Sunday, he nonetheless went to the Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach with his wife.

    When the gunmen — identified as father and son Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24 — opened fire on the festival, Kleytman covered his wife.

    Sabina Kleytman, who was supposed to go with her parents but could not attend, received a call from her cousin, telling her to call her mother because there was news of something bad happening in Bondi.

    “I called my mom, and she said, ‘Your dad is no more. Your dad’s just been killed,’” Sabina Kleytman recalled.

    “I couldn’t stop screaming because this is not what you expect,” she said. “You go to a joyful family cultural event with hundreds of people, a peaceful family event where we sing, have some doughnuts, and dance. Everybody brings their kids.”

    “After that, it’s been a nightmare that I cannot wake up from still,” she said, sobbing.

    Part of the pain for the victims’ families is the ongoing struggle to receive their loved ones’ bodies, which, according to Jewish custom, need to be buried as soon as possible. That tradition has run up against a complex crime-scene investigation.

    In the meantime, Sabina Kleytman said, she is trying to take solace in the “outpouring of love” her family has received and the memories of a joyous and kind man: a youth chess champion who taught her to read at age 3 and spent countless hours playing table tennis with her and her brother in their Ukraine apartment; a grandfather of 11 who taught his family to be proud of their Judaism and was looking forward to lighting the first Hanukkah candle with them — only to never get the chance.

    “He never stopped being a proud Jew,” she said. “Never. Not in Ukraine, and he had absolutely no plans to stop here in Australia. And apparently he paid with his life for it.”

  • New clues about long COVID’s cause could unlock treatments

    New clues about long COVID’s cause could unlock treatments

    Why some people experience long-lasting physical and mental effects from COVID-19 could be linked to chronic inflammation, according to new research that experts say could help develop new treatments for the confounding condition that continues to afflict millions.

    Some early research on the condition has suggested that long COVID’s symptoms linger because the virus persists in people’s bodies. But the new study published Friday in Nature Immunology found that people with long COVID had activated immune defenses and heightened inflammatory responses for more than six months after initial infection compared with those who fully recovered.

    The latest research “leads to a hypothesis that there might be therapeutic targets related to inflammation that might be worth exploring in clinical studies,” said Dan Barouch, the study’s lead author and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

    The study’s findings signal progress in understanding a condition that is estimated to affect more than 400 million individuals around the world as the coronavirus continues to infect people every day, said Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis who studies long COVID. There are no drugs approved for treatment of long COVID, leaving doctors to tackle individual symptoms with various therapies.

    “This is one piece of the puzzle,” said Al-Aly, who was not involved in the new study. “It’s eye-opening in the sense that it gives us more information that these pathways seem to be upregulated or activated in people with long COVID.”

    What does the new research mean?

    Anyone, regardless of their age or severity of their original symptoms, can develop long COVID, though some people have a higher risk, according to the World Health Organization. People have reported a constellation of symptoms, as many as 200 different ones, including brain fog, fatigue, dizziness, gastrointestinal problems, heart palpitations, and issues with sexual desire. The effects can be present four or more weeks after infection with SARS-CoV-2 and can last weeks, months, or even years.

    Researchers studied people during the early years of the pandemic from 2020 to 2021 as well as another cohort between 2023 and 2024. The 180 participants included people who were healthy, people infected with the coronavirus but recovered fully, and people with long COVID. Scientists analyzed protein levels, gene expression levels, immune responses, and viral measurements to see if there were differences between people who went on to develop lingering symptoms.

    Across both groups, the researchers saw multiple inflammatory pathways — how the body responds when it is injured or fighting infection — were triggered and stayed activated in people with long COVID.

    “We would speculate that the initial COVID infection triggered chronic inflammation in the host and that it’s probably not the only factor, but probably one of the factors that was associated with long COVID afterward,” Barouch said. He noted that while the researchers did not have access to data before patients were infected, they had “no reason to suspect” that those people already had chronic inflammation.

    Barouch said the findings of his study were limited, in part, by a small group of participants. While the researchers documented similar observations between both groups, which suggests that the findings could be generalized, he noted the need for larger studies of more diverse populations followed over a period of time.

    Based on the study’s data, Barouch said he started a clinical trial to test an anti-inflammatory drug that is typically used to treat eczema which targets one of these pathways. The trial has enrolled 45 participants and is ongoing, he said.

    A randomized trial of a drug commonly used to treat gout that reduces inflammation found that the medication did not help people with long COVID. This medication targets inflammation in a different way than the anti-inflammatory therapies Barouch said he and his team are studying.

    He also cautioned that more research needs to be done. Questions still remain, he said, about whether using a drug on one pathway is enough to treat long COVID when multiple pathways are activated.

    “But I do think that in the broader sense, identification of chronic inflammation as associated with long COVID will lead to therapeutic strategies that include anti-inflammatory drugs,” he added.

    What’s the latest on treatments?

    Understanding the biological causes of long COVID is critical for developing treatments, Barouch and other experts said.

    Because some research has suggested that the coronavirus could be lingering in people with long COVID, there have been studies of the antiviral Paxlovid, which is used to treat acute COVID infections. At least two initial studies using the drug for long COVID treatment showed no therapeutic efficacy, but other research is ongoing.

    Barouch emphasized that his research doesn’t contradict any existing theories, but adds data that can be used to support more studies of other therapies.

    The new study marks a welcome shift toward more investigation of alternative treatments, said Alba Azola, a rehabilitation physician and the co-director of the Long COVID/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Clinic at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

    “For too long in the field of long COVID a lot of attention has gone to viral persistence and viral specific kind of interventions,” said Azola, who was not involved in the latest research. “It’s important to look at, but also not the only pathway.”

    Long COVID could have different biological pathways and responses to treatments.

    “If we can get to a place where we can potentially find specific biologics that are going to be effective against the pathways that we’re seeing in common, that may give us a bigger gun to target more of those symptoms that are presenting,” Azola said.

  • Zelensky says proposals to end the war in Ukraine could be presented to Russia within days

    Zelensky says proposals to end the war in Ukraine could be presented to Russia within days

    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says proposals being negotiated with U.S. officials for a deal to end the fighting in Russia’s nearly four-year-old invasion of his country could be finalized within days, after which American envoys will present them to the Kremlin before possible further meetings in the U.S. next weekend.

    A draft peace plan discussed with the U.S. during talks in Berlin on Monday is “not perfect” but is “very workable,” Zelensky told reporters hours after the discussions. He cautioned, however, that some key issues — notably what happens to Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces — remain unresolved.

    U.S.-led peace efforts appear to be picking up momentum. But as the spotlight shifts to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin may balk at some of the proposals thrashed out by officials from Washington, Kyiv, and Western Europe, including postwar security guarantees for Ukraine.

    Zelensky said that after the Berlin talks, “we are very close to [a deal on] strong security guarantees.”

    The security proposal will be based on Western help in keeping the Ukrainian army strong, an official from a NATO nation said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

    “Europeans will lead a multinational and multi-domain force to strengthen those troops and to secure Ukraine from the land, sea, and air, and the U.S. will lead a ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism, with international participation,” the official said.

    Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov repeated Tuesday that Russia wants a comprehensive peace deal, not a temporary truce.

    If Ukraine seeks “momentary, unsustainable solutions, we are unlikely to be ready to participate,” he said.

    “We want peace — we don’t want a truce that would give Ukraine a respite and prepare for the continuation of the war,” he told reporters. “We want to stop this war, achieve our goals, secure our interests, and guarantee peace in Europe for the future.”

    American officials said Monday there is consensus from Ukraine and Europe on about 90% of the U.S.-authored peace plan. President Donald Trump said: “I think we’re closer now than we have been, ever,” to a peace settlement.

    Plenty of potential pitfalls remain, notably the land issue.

    Zelensky reiterated that Kyiv rules out recognizing Moscow’s control over any part of the Donbas, an economically important region in eastern Ukraine made up of Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia’s army does not fully control either, but Trump has previously indicated that Ukraine will have to cede territory.

    “The Americans are trying to find a compromise,” Zelensky said before visiting the Netherlands on Tuesday. “They are proposing a ‘free economic zone’ [in the Donbas]. And I want to stress once again: A ‘free economic zone’ does not mean under the control of the Russian Federation.”

    Putin wants all the areas in four key regions that his forces have seized, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory.

    Zelensky warned that if Putin rejects diplomatic efforts, Ukraine expects increased Western pressure on Moscow, including tougher sanctions and additional military support for defense, such as enhanced air defense systems and long-range weapons.

    Zelensky said that what is driving Kyiv officials in the negotiations is for Russia to be “held accountable for what it has done — for this war, for all the killings, for all the suffering.”

    Ukraine and the U.S. are preparing up to five documents related to the peace framework, several of them focused on security, Zelensky said.

    He was upbeat about the progress in the Berlin talks.

    “Overall, there was a demonstration of unity,” Zelensky said. “It was truly positive in the sense that it reflected the unity of the U.S., Europe, and Ukraine.”

  • FIFA slashes price of some World Cup tickets to $60 after fan backlash

    FIFA slashes price of some World Cup tickets to $60 after fan backlash

    MIAMI — FIFA slashed the price of some World Cup tickets for teams’ most loyal fans following a global backlash and some will get $60 seats for the final instead of being asked to pay $4,185.

    FIFA said Tuesday that $60 tickets will be made available for every game at the tournament in North America, going to the national federations whose teams are playing. Those federations decide how to distribute them to loyal fans who have attended previous games at home and on the road.

    Among the 72 World Cup group stage matches scheduled to be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico this summer, five will take place at Lincoln Financial Field, with the Ivory Coast and Ecuador kicking off Philly’s slate of matches on June 14.

    Here’s what ticket prices are looking like for World Cup games in Philly following FIFA’s latest presale

    The number of $60 tickets for each game is likely to be in the hundreds, rather than thousands, in what FIFA is now calling a “Supporter Entry Tier” price category.

    FIFA did not specify exactly why it so dramatically changed strategy, but said the lower prices are “designed to further support traveling fans following their national teams across the tournament.”

    The World Cup in North America will be the first edition that features 48 teams — up from 32 — and is expected to earn FIFA at least $10 billion in revenue. But fans worldwide reacted with shock and anger last week on seeing FIFA’s ticketing plans that gave participating teams no tickets in the lowest-priced category.

    Dan Mayk, 27, of South Philadelphia, wearing a FIFA Philadelphia 2026 scarf at the FIFA World Cup drawing at Stateside Live! on Dec. 5.

    The cheapest prices ranged from $120 to $265 for group-stage games that did not involve the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

    FIFA had set those prices despite the co-hosts having pledged eight years ago — when they were bidding for the tournament — that hundreds of thousands of $21 tickets would be made available.

    Criticism from fans, especially in Europe, had been increasing for several months over plans for “dynamic pricing” plus extra fees on a FIFA-run resale platform — both features that are common in the U.S. entertainment industry but not to soccer fans worldwide.

    Fan anger intensified last week when it became clear loyal supporters would have no access to the cheapest category tickets and that fans who wanted to reserve a ticket for all of their team’s potential games — through the final — would not get refunded until after the tournament.

    In another change Tuesday, FIFA said it would waive its administrative fees when refunds are made after the July 19 final.

  • Joe Ely, a Texas songwriter whose legacy touched rock and punk, dies at 78

    Joe Ely, a Texas songwriter whose legacy touched rock and punk, dies at 78

    AUSTIN, Texas — Joe Ely, 78, the influential Texas-born singer-songwriter whose blend of honky-tonk, rock, and roadhouse blues made him a favorite among other musicians and led to collaborations with Bruce Springsteen and the Clash, has died.

    Mr. Ely died in Taos, N.M., of complications from Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and pneumonia, with his wife and daughter by his side, according to a post on his Facebook account Monday night and later confirmed by his representatives.

    Mr. Ely was considered a key figure in the progressive country music movement as a founder of the influential country-rock band the Flatlanders with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, and later as a solo artist.

    “Joe Ely performed American roots music with the fervor of a true believer who knew music could transport souls,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

    “But his true measure came through in the dynamic intensity of his powerhouse live performances, where he could stand his ground aside fellow zealots Bruce Springsteen, who recorded duets with Ely, and the [Rolling] Stones and the Clash, who took Ely on tour as an opening act,” Young said.

    After signing with MCA, Mr. Ely released his first solo album in 1977. He would release more than 20 albums over his career, including Love and Freedom earlier this year.

    Born in Amarillo, Texas, Mr. Ely stayed connected to his Texas roots through decades of recording and performing that lacked a mainstream breakthrough but made him a favorite of other artists.

    “Every time I start a new album I head up to West Texas and drive around, you know, drive on those old cotton roads and in the wide-open spaces, and every once in a while I’ll come across a place where I’ve spent some time,” Mr. Ely told Texas Monthly in 2011.

    It was a soundcheck for a show in London that led to the collaboration with British punk band the Clash. Mr. Ely would later open for the Clash at several shows and sang backup vocals for their hit song “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”

  • Britain’s BBC is both beloved and maligned. Now it faces a $10 billion Trump lawsuit

    Britain’s BBC is both beloved and maligned. Now it faces a $10 billion Trump lawsuit

    LONDON — President Donald Trump is suing the BBC for $10 billion over a television documentary he claims was “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious.”

    Britain’s national broadcaster has apologized to Trump over the way it edited a speech in the program, but says it will defend itself against the defamation claim.

    The BBC is not the first media organization on the receiving end of a lawsuit from the president. But its position is complicated by its status as a taxpayer-funded public broadcaster and its stature as a closely scrutinized national institution.

    A pioneering broadcaster

    The BBC was founded in 1922 as a radio service to “inform, educate and entertain,” a mantra still central to its self-image.

    It launched the world’s first regularly scheduled television service in 1936, and helped make TV a mass medium when many Britons bought a TV set specifically to watch the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

    It operates 15 U.K. national and regional TV channels, several international channels, 10 national radio stations, dozens of local radio stations, the globe-spanning World Service radio and copious digital output including the iPlayer streaming service.

    As well as its news output it has a huge global viewership for entertainment shows including “Doctor Who,” “EastEnders,” “The Traitors” and “Strictly Come Dancing.”

    The BBC is funded from the public purse

    The broadcaster is funded by an annual license fee, currently set at 174.50 pounds ($230), paid by all U.K. households who watch live TV or any BBC content.

    The license fee has long had opponents, not least rival commercial broadcasters, and they have grown louder in an era of digital streaming when many people no longer have television sets or follow traditional TV schedules.

    The BBC’s governing charter, which sets the license fee, is reviewed once a decade, and the latest round of the process kicked off Tuesday. The center-left Labour government says it will ensure the BBC has “sustainable and fair” funding but has not ruled out replacing the license fee with another funding model.

    Managing the broadcaster has become a political football

    The broadcaster is bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial in its output. It is not a state broadcaster beholden to the U.K government, but is overseen by a board that includes both BBC staff and political appointees.

    It’s frequently a political football, with conservatives seeing a leftist slant in its news programs and some liberals accusing it of having a conservative bias.

    It has repeatedly battled British governments over editorial independence, from the 1926 general strike, when Cabinet minister Winston Churchill tried to seize control of the airwaves, to a battle with Tony Blair’s administration over the intelligence used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

    Recently it has been criticized for its coverage of trans issues and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In February, the BBC removed a documentary about Gaza from its streaming service after it emerged that the child narrator was the son of an official in the Hamas-led government.

    Documentary that riled Trump

    The lawsuit stems from an edition of the BBC’s “Panorama” current affairs series titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” that was broadcast days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. The film, made by a third-party production company, spliced together two sections of a speech given by Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.”

    By doing so, it made it look like Trump was giving the green light to his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol as Congress was poised to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election that Trump falsely alleged was stolen from him.

    The BBC apologized last month and two of its top executives resigned.

    Trump’s lawyers say the program falsely portrayed the president as a “violent insurrectionist,” caused “massive economic damage to his brand value” and was a “brazen attempt” to interfere in the U.S. election.

    The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.

    Legal jeopardy

    The BBC said in a statement that “we will be defending this case. We are not going to make further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

    Media attorney Mark Stephens said Trump and his lawyers face several hurdles. They must prove that the BBC program was shown in Florida and that people in that state thought less of him as a consequence. Trump’s lawyers argue that U.S. subscribers to BritBox and people using virtual private networks could have watched it, but they must prove it definitively, said Stephens, a consultant at the firm Howard Kennedy.

    “Allegations of libel are cheap, but proof is dear,’’ Stephens said.

    Stephens said Trump’s lawyers also have to deal with the fact that public figures have “to put up with the slings and arrows of incorrect reporting,’’ which are protected under the First Amendment.

    While many legal experts have dismissed the president’s claims against the media as having little merit, he has won some lucrative settlements against U.S. media companies and he could try to leverage the BBC mistake for a payout, potentially to a charity of his choice.

    The BBC’s position is complicated by the fact that any money it pays out in legal fees or a settlement comes from British taxpayers’ pocket.

    “I think President Trump is banking on the fact that the British public will not want to spend the money to defend the claim, nor will they want to pay any money in damages to him,’’ Stephens said. “So it allows him to continue a narrative of fake news and all of those other things at fairly little cost in the global scheme of things.”

  • Pentagon plan calls for major power shifts within U.S. military

    Pentagon plan calls for major power shifts within U.S. military

    Senior Pentagon officials are preparing a plan to downgrade several of the U.S. military’s major headquarters and shift the balance of power among its top generals, in a major consolidation sought by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, people familiar with the matter said.

    If adopted, the plan would usher in some of the most significant changes at the military’s highest ranks in decades, in part following through on Hegseth’s promise to break the status quo and slash the number of four-star generals in the military. It would reduce in prominence the headquarters of U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command, and U.S. Africa Command by placing them under the control of a new organization known as U.S. International Command, according to five people familiar with the matter.

    Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine is expected to detail the proposal, which had not previously been reported, for Hegseth in the coming days. Such moves would complement other efforts by the administration to shift resources from the Middle East and Europe and focus foremost on expanding military operations in the Western Hemisphere, these people said. Like others interviewed for this report, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the effort before it is conveyed to the secretary.

    Hegseth’s team said in a statement that it would not comment on “rumored internal discussions” or “pre-decisional matters.” Any insinuation that there is a divide among officials over the issue is “completely false — everyone in the Department is working to achieve the same goal under this administration,” the statement said.

    Pete Hegseth faces deepening scrutiny from Congress over boat strikes

    The Pentagon has shared few, if any, details with Congress, a lack of communication that has perturbed members of the Republican-led Senate and House Armed Services Committees, according to two people familiar with how the panels have prepared for the proposal. Top officers at the commands involved are awaiting more details as well, officials said.

    The plan also calls for realigning U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Northern Command, which oversee military operations throughout the Western Hemisphere, under a new headquarters to be known as U.S. Americas Command, or Americom, people familiar with the matter said. That concept was reported earlier this year by NBC News.

    Pentagon officials also discussed creating a U.S. Arctic Command that would report to Americom, but that idea appears to have been abandoned, people familiar with the matter said.

    Combined, the moves would reduce the number of top military headquarters — known as combatant commands — from 11 to eight while cutting the number of four-star generals and admirals who report directly to Hegseth. Other remaining combatant commands would be U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Space Command, U.S. Strategic Command, and U.S. Transportation Command.

    Those familiar with the plan said it aligns with the Trump administration’s national security strategy, released this month, which declares that the “days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.”

    ‘Baghdad Pete’ tries to prevent fact-based press from covering dire changes to U.S. security doctrine | Trudy Rubin

    The proposal was organized by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff under the supervision of Caine, and is due to be shared with Hegseth as soon as this week as the preferred course of action among senior military officials. It grew from a request made by Hegseth in the spring to look for ways to improve how troops are commanded and controlled, a senior defense official familiar with the discussion said, adding that Hegseth has kept in touch with Caine about the issue over the last several months.

    Any changes would need the approval of Hegseth and President Donald Trump. The moves would come in the Pentagon’s Unified Command Plan, which lays out the roles of the military’s major headquarters.

    Lawmakers have taken the extraordinary step of requiring the Pentagon to submit a detailed blueprint that describes the realignment’s potential costs and impacts on America’s alliances. The measure, included in Congress’ annual defense policy bill, would withhold money to enact the effort until at least 60 days after the Pentagon provides lawmakers with those materials.

    The bill has cleared the House and is expected to pass the Senate this week.

    The senior defense official said the proposed realignment is meant to speed decision-making and adaptation among military commanders. “Decay” had been observed in how the U.S. military commands and controls troops, he added, suggesting that the need for sweeping change is urgent.

    “Time ain’t on our side, man,” the senior defense official said, describing internal conversations around the plan. “The saying here is, ‘If not us, who, and if not now, when?’”

    The potential reorganization comes as Hegseth has begun broader efforts to cull the number of generals and admirals across the military. He also has fired or otherwise forced out more than 20 senior officers, threatened others with polygraph tests to determine whether they have leaked information to the news media, and told those remaining that if they do not like the administration’s policies they should “do the honorable thing and resign.”

    Chuck Hagel, who served as defense secretary during the Obama administration and as a Republican member of the Senate before that, expressed concerns about the Trump administration’s ambitions. There are different dynamics, needs, and security threats throughout the globe, he said.

    “The world isn’t getting any less complicated,” Hagel said in an interview. “You want commands that have the capability of heading off problems before they become big problems, and I think you lose some of that when you unify or consolidate too many.”

    Senior military officials considered about two dozen other concepts, the senior defense official said. At least one discussion called for a reduction to six total combatant commands. Under that plan, Special Operations Command, Space Command, and Cyber Command would be downgraded and placed under the control of a new U.S. Global Command, said other officials familiar with the discussion.

    Caine is expected to share at least two other courses of action with Hegseth, people familiar with the matter said. One concept calls for creating two commands to house all of the others, with all major geographic organizations such as Central Command and European Command placed under the control of an entity that would be called Operational Command. Other major headquarters, such as Transportation Command and Space Command, would fall under an organization called Support Command.

    One proposal suggested the creation of a new headquarters unit, Joint Task Force War, to be based at the Pentagon. It would focus on planning and strategy when the United States was not at war, and be capable of controlling forces anywhere in the world when there was a conflict, people familiar with the matter said.

    The idea didn’t “test well” in exercises with military officials and appears unlikely to be adopted, the senior defense official said. Top military officials expressed concerns that such an organization would not possess the same regional expertise and relationships inherent to the military’s current construct.

    Even if you have “some of your best people” in such a task force, the senior official said, “you don’t have a fingertip feel” for what is occurring in a region. A second official said it seemed “very confusing” to have top commanders in a region prepare for a conflict there, only to hand those plans over to another commander when something occurred.

    Another plan sought to reorganize the military by domain, with operations organized and led by whether they occurred on land or in air, sea, space, or cyberspace, people familiar with the matter said. The idea had supporters in the Space Force but had few other proponents, people familiar with the matter said. It also limited the Marine Corps’ influence, with it falling under the control of the Navy Department even as the other branches of service were elevated.

    Military officials involved in the reorganization effort also considered whether to elevate the chairman’s role to allow him to command forces, rather than serving as the senior military adviser to both the president and the defense secretary. That could have occurred through the Joint Task Force War framework, two officials said, but the concept seemed murky.

    The idea also could have been complicated by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, landmark legislation that reorganized the military and defined the chairman’s role. Under the law, the chairman is considered the “principal” military adviser to the president, the defense secretary, and other senior officials. Operations are controlled through a chain of command that runs from combatant commanders to the defense secretary and then to the president.

  • The U.S. gained 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October as the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%

    The U.S. gained 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October as the unemployment rate rose to 4.6%

    WASHINGTON — The United States gained a decent 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October as federal workers departed after cutbacks by the Trump administration, the government said in delayed reports.

    The unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, highest since 2021.

    Both the October and November job creation numbers, released Tuesday by the Labor Department, came in late because of the 43-day federal government shutdown.

    The November job gains came in higher than the 40,000 economists had forecast. The October job losses were caused by a 162,000 drop in federal workers, many of whom resigned at the end of fiscal year 2025 on Sept. 30 under pressure from billionaire Elon Musk’s purge of U.S. government payrolls.

    Labor Department revisions also knocked 33,000 jobs off August and September payrolls.

    Workers’ average hourly earnings rose just 0.1% from October, the smallest gain since August 2023. Compared to a year earlier, pay was up 3.5%, the lowest since May 2021.

    From September: Pa. workers have lost leverage in Trump’s economy, report says

    Healthcare employers added more than 46,000 jobs in November, accounting for more than two-thirds of the 69,000 private sector jobs created last month. Construction companies added 28,000 jobs. Manufacturing shed jobs for the seventh straight month, losing 5,000 jobs in November.

    Hiring has clearly lost momentum, hobbled by uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of the high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in 2022 and 2023 to rein in an outburst of inflation.

    American companies are mostly holding onto the employees they have. But they’re reluctant to hire new ones as they struggle to assess how to use artificial intelligence and how to adjust to Trump’s unpredictable policies, especially his double-digit taxes on imports from around the world.

    The uncertainty leaves jobseekers struggling to find work or even land interviews. Federal Reserve policymakers are divided over whether the labor market needs more help from lower interest rates. Their deliberations are rendered more difficult because official reports on the economy’s health are coming in late and incomplete after a 43-day government shutdown.

    Labor Department revisions in September showed that the economy created 911,000 fewer jobs than originally reported in the year that ended in March. That meant that employers added an average of just 71,000 new jobs a month over that period, not the 147,000 first reported. Since March, job creation has fallen farther — to an average 35,000 a month.

    The unemployment rate, though still modest by historical standards, has risen since bottoming out at a 54-year low of 3.4% in April 2023.

    “The takeaway is that the labor market remains on a relatively soft footing, with employers showing little appetite to hire, but are also reluctant to fire,” Thomas Feltmate, senior economist at TD Economics, wrote in a commentary. “That said, labor demand has cooled more than supply in recent months, which is what’s behind the steady upward drift in the unemployment rate.’’

    Adding to the uncertainty is the growing use of artificial intelligence and other technologies that can reduce demand for workers.

    “We’ve seen a lot of the businesses that we support are stuck in that stagnant mode: ‘Are we going to hire or are we not? What can we automate? What do we need the human touch with?’’’ said Matt Hobbie, vice president of the staffing firm HealthSkil in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

    “We’re in Lehigh Valley, which is a big transportation hub in eastern Pennsylvania. We’ve seen some cooling in the logistics and transportation markets, specifically because we’ve seen automation in those sectors, robotics.’’

    Worries about the job market were enough to nudge the Fed into cutting its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point last week for the third time this year.

    But three Fed officials refused to go along with the move, the most dissents in six years. Some Fed officials are balking at further cuts while inflation remains above the central bank’s 2% target. Two voted to keep the rate unchanged. Stephen Miran, appointed by Trump to the Fed’s governing board in September, voted for a bigger cut – in line with what the president demands.

    Tuesday’s report shows that “the labor market remains weak, but the pace of deterioration probably is too slow to spur the (Fed) to ease again in January,’’ Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconimics, wrote in a commentary. The Fed holds its next policy meeting Jan. 27-28.

    Because of the government shutdown, the Labor Department did not release its jobs reports for September, October and November on time.

    It finally put out the September jobs report on Nov. 20, seven weeks late. It published some of the October data – including a count of the jobs created that month by businesses, nonprofits and government agencies – along with the November report Tuesday. But it did not release an unemployment rate for October because it could not calculate the number during the shutdown.

  • Australian police say the Bondi Beach mass shooting was inspired by an Islamic State group

    Australian police say the Bondi Beach mass shooting was inspired by an Islamic State group

    MELBOURNE, Australia — A mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australia’s federal police commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said Tuesday.

    The suspects were a father and son, ages 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man, whom state officials named as Sajid Akram, was shot dead. His son was being treated at a hospital.

    A news conference by political and law enforcement leaders on Tuesday was the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects’ ideologies. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were based on evidence obtained, including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”

    Indian police said Tuesday that the older suspect was originally from the southern city of Hyderabad and held an Indian passport. They said he married a woman of European origin and migrated to Australia in 1998 in search of employment opportunities, maintaining little contact with his family in India.

    “The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalization,” Telangana State Police Chief B. Shivadhar Reddy said in a statement.

    Twenty-five people are still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre, 10 of them in critical condition. Three are patients in a children’s hospital.

    Also among those being treated is Ahmed al Ahmed, who was captured on video tackling and disarming one assailant, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.

    Those killed ranged in age from 10 to 87. They were attending a Hanukkah event at Australia’s most famous beach Sunday when the gunshots rang out.

    Calls for stricter gun laws

    Albanese and the leaders of some of Australia’s states have pledged to tighten the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare.

    Officials divulged more information as public questions and anger grew about how the attackers were able to plan and enact it and whether Australian Jews had been sufficiently protected from rising antisemitism.

    Australian leaders promise to tighten gun laws after Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre

    Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed his cache of six weapons legally.

    “The suspected murderers, callous in how they allegedly coordinated their attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ableness of their victims,” Barrett said. “It appears the alleged killers were interested only in a quest for a death tally.”

    Authorities probe suspects’ trip to Philippines

    The suspects traveled to the Philippines last month, said Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner for New South Wales state. Their reasons for the trip and where in the Philippines they went would be probed by investigators, Lanyon said.

    He also confirmed that a vehicle removed from the scene, registered to the younger suspect, contained improvised explosive devices.

    “I also confirm that it contained two homemade ISIS flags,” Lanyon said.

    The Philippines Bureau of Immigration confirmed Tuesday that Sajid Akram traveled to the country from Nov. 1 to Nov. 28 along with Naveed Akram, 24, giving the city of Davao as their final destination. Australian authorities have not named the younger suspect.

    Groups of Muslim separatist insurgents, including Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, once expressed support for the Islamic State group and have hosted small numbers of foreign combatants from Asia, the Middle East, and Europe in the past.

    Decades of military offensives, however, have considerably weakened Abu Sayyaf and other such armed groups, and Philippine military and police officials say there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants in the country’s south.

    Albanese visits man who tackled shooter

    Earlier, Albanese visited Ahmed in a hospital. Albanese said the 42-year-old Syrian-born fruit shop owner had further surgery scheduled on Wednesday for shotgun wounds to his left shoulder and upper body.

    “It was a great honor to met Ahmed al Ahmed. He is a true Australian hero,” Albanese told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with him and his parents.

    “We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our country. We will not allow this country to be divided. That is what the terrorists seek. We will unite. We will embrace each other, and we’ll get through this,” Albanese added.

    Lifeguards praised for actions during massacre

    The famous blue-shirted lifeguards of Bondi Beach attracted praise as more stories of their actions during the shooting emerged.

    One duty lifeguard, identified by the organization’s Instagram account as Rory Davey, performed an ocean rescue during the shooting after people fled, fully clothed, into the sea.

    Another lifeguard, Jackson Doolan, posted to his social media a photo taken as he sprinted, barefoot and clutching a first aid kit, from Tamarama beach a mile away toward Bondi as the massacre continued.

    “These guys are community members, and it’s not about the surf,” Anthony Caroll, one of the stars of a popular reality television show called Bondi Rescue, told Sky News on Tuesday. “They heard the gunshots and they left the beach and came right up the back here into the scene of the crime, into harm’s way while those bullets were being shot.”

    Record numbers sign up to donate blood as Australians mourn at scene of shooting

    Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon visited the scene of the carnage on Tuesday and was welcomed by Jewish leaders.

    “I’m not sure that my vocabulary is rich enough to express how I feel. My heart is torn apart because the Jewish community, the Australians of Jewish faith, the Jewish community is also my community,” Maimon said.

    Thousands have visited Bondi from all walks of life since the tragedy to pay their respects and lay flowers on a mounting pile at an impromptu memorial site.

    One of the visitors on Tuesday was former Prime Minister John Howard, who was responsible for the 1996 overhaul of gun laws and an associated buyback of newly outlawed weapons.

    In the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting, a record number of Australians signed up to donate blood. On Monday alone close to 50,000 appointments were booked, more than double the previous record, the national donation organization Lifeblood told the Associated Press.

    Almost 1,300 people signed up to donate for the first time. Such was the enthusiasm at Lifeblood’s Bondi location that appointments to give blood were unavailable before Dec. 31, according to the organization’s website.

    A total of 7,810 donations of blood, plasma, and platelets were made across the country on Monday, spokesperson Cath Stone said. Australian news outlets reported queues of up to four hours at some Sydney donation sites.