Suspect in Michigan synagogue attack had lost family in Israeli strike on Lebanon
Source: US news | The Guardian · Bias: Center Left
Summary
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who was born in Lebanon and became a naturalized US citizen, lost two brothers, a niece and a nephew in the airstrikeSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe armed suspect who drove a vehicle into the hallway of a large Michigan synagogue complex that includes a school had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon just last week, an official said on Friday.A potential mass-casualty event was averted when security guards already in place at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township on the outskirts of Detroit killed the driver before any harm could come to the synagogue’s staff, teachers and 140 children at the early childhood center there on Thursday afternoon. Continue reading...
Suspect in Michigan synagogue attack had lost family in Israeli strike on Lebanon
Center Left
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, who was born in Lebanon and became a naturalized US citizen, lost two brothers, a niece and a nephew in the airstrikeSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe armed suspect who drove a vehicle into the hallway of a large Michigan synagogue complex that includes a school had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon just last week, an official said on Friday.A potential mass-casualty event was averted when security guards already in place at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township on the outskirts of Detroit killed the driver before any harm could come to the synagogue’s staff, teachers and 140 children at the early childhood center there on Thursday afternoon. Continue reading...
Kylie Jane Kremer, the activist listed as the permit holder for the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the Capitol attack, has floated a new theory about Washington's summer heat: it's sabotage.In a post on X, Kremer claimed someone with an "extreme case" of Trump derangement syndrome "geoengineered" the weather in D.C. She pointed to the cold at Trump's inauguration as proof of the same plot."I’m telling y’all that someone with an extreme case of TDS geoengineered this weather in DC. Same way they geoengineered Trump’s inauguration to be one of the coldest in U.S. history. People with TDS hate Trump more than they love America," she wrote on X.Her post came in response to Washington Post meteorologist and reporter Ben Noll, who noted the nation's capital would be "hotter than 99 percent of the planet on Friday.""Only parts of Africa's Sahara Desert, the Middle East, China's Gobi Desert and a few spots in the Desert Southwest will be hotter," he wrote on X.Forecasters called the inauguration D.C.'s coldest in decades, and the ceremony was moved indoors. But whether progressives with weather machines were responsible is another matter. And the internet didn't spare her. Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger wrote that people pushing the theory are "not mentally well," while internet commentator Damin Toell reminded followers that Kremer was also a key figure in the 2020 "stop the steal" movement. Writer Joe Flood noted that a woman who helped host the Jan. 6 rally now believes liberals control the weather.Julian Andreone of Drop Site News leaned into the joke, sarcastically agreeing that July heat in D.C. is "very suspicious." Climate advocate Benji Backer flagged the contradiction."Climate change can’t be real but this can be. Got it. Trying to catch up," he joked.The claim echoes a pattern among MAGA figures, including Marjorie Taylor Greene's flood conspiracy theory and her bill to ban "weather modification" after the deadly Texas floods. Even fellow Republicans have stepped in to debunk the weather-control claims. Meteorologists have said cloud seeding cannot produce disasters.
Newly released body-camera footage shows the moment a Florida deputy arrived at the location where a woman had been mauled by an alligator. The woman, 31-year-old Orlando […]
The Trump administration concluded a recent mineral deal with Kazakhstan that, not surprisingly, enriches not only President Donald Trump’s own family but that of his secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick. Trump’s two eldest sons, part owners of Dominari Securities, are set to profit from the Kazakh tungsten deal. So is Cantor Fitzgerald, the investment firm run by Lutnick’s two sons.As The New York Times pointed out in its investigation of the scheme, “Their sons were soon doing business with partners in a deal that their fathers were negotiating, continuing a pattern of self-enrichment in the second Trump administration that has few precedents in American history.”The phrases “self-enrichment” and “few precedents” are interesting ways of characterizing this latest instance of the administration’s corruption. Isn’t self-enrichment a good thing, in the sense of profiting from your own hard work? By contrast, the article doesn’t mention the word “corruption” at all. Perhaps the Times is worried about getting hit by yet another Trump legal challenge (in October last year, Trump refiled a $15 billion defamation suit against the paper for its coverage of his 2024 presidential campaign).There are indeed several precedents in American history for what Trump is doing. These previous corruption scandals—Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, Teapot Dome—wrecked the reputations of presidents and cast long shadows over American politics. They also helped to produce the kind of safeguards that Trump is now destroying.Foreign policy is a tool by which the administration levies a toll on any entity that has the temerity to be a country other than the United States. As with much of Trump’s disrespect for norms, his corruption has been massive and largely in full view. The two outstanding questions are: Will Trump and company ever be held accountable for their graft and will this corruption have an enduring impact on political institutions in the United States?Tracking the DamageIf scandalous behavior unfolds in full view of everyone, is it still a scandal? “Scandal” suggests something hidden, something whispered about, something revealed. Trump’s actions are full frontal. They are both brazen and matter-of-fact.According to the Trump administration and its extended family, the money skimmed off the top of economic transactions is just smart politics. The administration has endeavored to negotiate every peace deal, trade agreement, investment arrangement, and mineral pact in such a way as to deliver Trump, his family, and their circle of close supporters a good chunk of change.This is Trump’s interpretation of the American dream: Folks would be downright foolish not to profit from their position. All the great tycoons made their money, from railroads to AI, by being in the right place at the right time with the right amount of ruthlessness. In Trump’s case, however, he is using taxpayer money to cover the risk. And most the time, given the terms of the arrangement, there is hardly any risk because Trump is using his presidential power to game the system. That’s what he really means by the “art of the deal.” Trump only deals from a marked deck of cards.The Center for American Progress runs Trump’s Take, which estimates that the president has received a little over $2.6 billion in cash and gifts since he took office in January 2025.The graft is not secret, though sometimes the actual amounts involved are obscured by layers of complex finance. Trump’s recent mandatory financial disclosure offers some details. But thanks to a number of websites, it’s become quite easy to track in real time the growing amount of Trump’s slice of the pie.The Center for American Progress runs Trump’s Take, which estimates that the president has received a little over $2.6 billion in cash and gifts since he took office in January 2025. Much of this money has come from various crypto schemes, including the Trump meme coin, but also such dubious ventures as the documentary about Melania Trump and a number of legal settlements (more colloquially known as shakedowns). Corruption Counter puts the value at $2.2 billion and includes such recent items as the $100 million savings for Trump from the recent effort to bar the Internal Revenue Service from auditing the president. (Courts blocked the overall $1.8 billion “settlement fund,” but the Justice Department is upholding the IRS amnesty.)If you want to keep track just of the crypto deals, the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee maintain the Trump Family Digital Grift Wealth Tracker. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) keeps his own list, which highlights the insider trading around the Iran War and a defense contract with Dell after the president invested in the company. David Kirkpatrick, at The New Yorker, has been keeping a running total of Trump’s ballooning assets. In January, he updated his total to $4 billion, which details, among other things, the Gulf money flowing into Trump pockets.
The fight for Michigan’s open Senate seat is becoming an early proxy war over the Democratic Party’s future, with progressives and establishment leaders lining up behind rival candidates in one of the country’s most important battleground states. The contest to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) has crystallized into a three-way Democratic primary, though much […]
July 4th events for America's milestone birthday are being threatened by a brutal heat wave. And, Russia has struck Ukraine's capital, killing several people in what it calls retaliatory attacks.
Majdal Zoun, south Lebanon — The Israel Defense Forces revealed on June 19 that it had discovered an Iranian-financed and designed Hezbollah tunnel in the heart of this town that can be used to launch lethal drones into Israel. The IDF blew up the drone factory and tunnel. An IDF official told me, “It took them […]
New financial disclosures by President Donald Trump show that he made more than $1.4 billion from his family’s various cryptocurrency ventures last year, reaping a windfall after pulling back on regulation of the industry and promoting the United States as “the crypto capital of the world.” Other Trump businesses, like his resorts and golf courses, have also flourished since his return to the White House, while the Trump Organization has also licensed the family name to properties in countries that are crucial to U.S. foreign policy interests, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
“It’s been an incredibly successful period for the Trump family,” says Reuters investigative reporter Tom Bergin.
