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Murder-for-hire accusation lands 'MAGA's Man in Latin America' behind bars: report
A businessman dubbed "MAGA's Man in Latin America" who once accepted an award at Mar-a-Lago is now sitting in a Bolivian jail accused of plotting to have his pregnant ex-girlfriend killed, according to a new report. Fernando Cerimedo, a business associate of Brad Parscale, the digital mastermind behind two of President Donald Trump's presidential campaigns, was arrested at Bolivia’s Viru Viru Airport last month on conspiracy-to-murder charges, the Bulwark reported Thursday.Cerimedo built a career advising conservative populist leaders across the region on digital strategy, including Argentina's Javier Milei, according to the report.At a February "Hispanic Prosperity Gala" at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, Cerimedo accepted an award for "Hispanic Political Consultant of the Year" and singled out his benefactor: "Thank you to Brad Parscale! For believing [in] me all the time, and giving me your technology."Six months later, on Aug. 17, gunmen posing as delivery drivers shot Cerimedo's pregnant ex-girlfriend, Nadia Beller, outside a hotel in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, according to the report.Beller survived and began giving interviews from her hospital bed "implicating Cerimedo," the Bulwark reported. Cerimedo was arrested attempting to fly to his native Argentina and now "faces preventive detention" and separate investigations into alleged drug trafficking, The Bulwark Reported reported."The scandal is raising questions about Parscale’s ties to Cerimedo as well," The Bulwark reported."The New York Times and the Economist both described Cerimedo as Parscale’s 'partner.' La Derecha Diaria, a right-wing website in Argentina founded by Cerimedo, announced last year that Cerimedo would be the 'representative' in Latin America for two of Parscale’s companies."Paracale, whose career in politics was eclipsed after he was taken into custody by police in 2020 over what were described as "mental health" problems, declined to comment to The Bulwark.
Yen soars as Bank of Japan tipped to raise interest rates
Jump lifts currency to highest level against dollar in a month, while global markets remain jitteryBusiness live – latest updatesThe Japanese yen has soared by more than 2% against the dollar amid speculation the Bank of Japan is set to raise interest rates.The latest jump on Thursday lifted the yen to its highest level against the dollar in a month, at 155.57, and followed a 0.9% move the previous day. Continue reading...
Trump panics over 'serious flub' after official 'forgets' American deaths in Iran
President Donald Trump made the unusual move of publicly correcting his own commerce secretary after he claimed no Americans had died in the Iran war, a conflict that has killed 18 U.S. service members.The correction came in a Truth Social post published about 7:30 a.m. Thursday. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had appeared on CNBC the day before and said the war had resulted in no American deaths, while arguing to investors that the conflict would be good for the bond market."I think the way the president is playing Iran, right, there's not — there haven't been American deaths," Lutnick said. "It's really just an economic choke out, which the administration is now executing more broadly, and I think it'll be very effective."Lutnick used the phrase to describe squeezing Iran's economy rather than defeating it on the battlefield. He told CNBC that the strategy was working, and he tied it to his forecast that borrowing costs would fall."So I'm very optimistic that the bond market will treat us very well," Lutnick said, predicting in the same interview that interest rates would stabilize within a couple of months. The war, which began on Feb. 28, is now in its seventh month.On Thursday, Trump insisted that Lutnick had been thinking about a country that the commerce secretary never named."Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!" Trump wrote.Trump's reference to Venezuela pointed to a different operation, in which U.S. forces struck targets across that country on Jan. 3 and captured President Nicolás Maduro with few American casualties, according to the Congressional Research Service.Lutnick had named Iran directly. He also credited the administration's handling of Iran with his optimism about the bond market, according to the interview transcript. The Pentagon's casualty database contradicts the claim, listing 18 service members killed and 757 wounded since the war began, CNN reported last month.The military quietly added 60 injuries to the count in a single week in late August, The Intercept reported.That raised the combined total of dead and wounded to 776. Some 345 of those casualties have come since a second ceasefire collapsed on July 7, according to the outlet. One U.S. government official called the sudden increase "an accounting trick" and accused the Pentagon of slow-walking the number.Mario Nawfal, who runs a large news aggregation account on X, posted the clip roughly half an hour after Trump's message and called it a "SERIOUS flub.""[P]eople in the administration like Lutnick can easily forget, or intentionally ignore, the men and women who've been killed or wounded," a USA Today opinion column argued.Trump's own allies made a nearly identical charge against President Joe Biden during the 2024 campaign. Biden falsely said at a CNN debate that no American troops had died on his watch, Fox News reported."[T]he stumbling, bumbling buffoon that we have in the White House had the audacity to say that under his watch that no military members have died," Darin Hoover, the father of a Marine killed in the 2021 Kabul airport bombing, told Fox News Digital.Two years later, support for the war Trump ordered has fallen to 31 percent, its lowest level since the early weeks of the fighting, Al Jazeera reported, citing a Reuters/Ipsos poll.Pollsters found 83% of those surveyed said they expect the fighting to continue for a long time. Gasoline now costs more than a dollar a gallon above pre-war levels, the outlet reported.Trump's overall approval stands at 32 percent, with 64 percent disapproving, in a national poll released Monday by the University of Massachusetts Amherst."With the midterm elections just two months away, the clock is ticking for President Trump and the Republican Party to offer solutions to the nation's most pressing problems," said Tatishe Nteta, the poll's director and a political science professor at the university.
Spain’s PM says no evidence ‘whatsoever’ Morocco behind Ceuta border breach
Pedro Sánchez continues to defend Rabat after police report claiming border forces helped 70,000 cross borderEurope live – latest updatesSpain has seen no evidence “whatsoever” that Morocco planned or facilitated a mass border breach into its north African territory of Ceuta, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has told parliament.The address on Thursday followed the emergence of a police report, commissioned by a judge and widely quoted in the media, claiming Moroccan border forces had actively aided about 70,000 people to cross the border in late July. Continue reading...
Dozens of trapped hydropower tunnel workers in Nepal could still be alive, official says
About 46 people believed to be trapped in ‘room-like’ structure inside hydro plant tunnel on Nepal-Tibet borderAfter the flood: human suffering on an unfathomable scale in Nepal’s worst-hit districtsNepal authorities have said they are “confident” that dozens of workers in Nepal’s Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant are still alive, more than a week after deadly flash floods left them trapped in an underground chamber.Authorities said that at least 639 workers were still missing from hydropower plants built along Nepal’s Bhote Koshi and Triushuli rivers. Continue reading...
Gloria Steinem, feminist icon, dies at 92
Gloria Steinem — the iconic feminist journalist who revolutionized work for generations of women to come — has died. She was 92.Steinem passed away in her New York City home on Wednesday, surrounded by those who loved her, The Gloria Steinem Foundation announced Thursday morning."Gloria’s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard," the foundation stated. "Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor."The cause of death was not revealed.Steinem dedicated her life to causes such as reproductive freedom, domestic violence prevention and workplace gender inequalities.She became a household name in 1963, when she went undercover as a Playboy bunny and exposed the poor conditions workers faced in Hugh Hefner’s clubs.In her later years, Steinem hosted talking circles in her home and wrote a forthcoming book, "???????? ???????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????," according to the foundation."Gloria loved the tradition of lighting signal fires on hills to light the way to the other side of the mountain," they stated. "Lighting your own candle for Gloria makes you part of this global and celestial community circle."Read more about her life and work here.
'Vindictive' DOJ cases in peril as lawyers say Trump 'caused terror, violence and murder'
The Justice Department's first-ever prosecution of protesters of the Trump administration under a church-protection law now faces dismissal, with defendants arguing President Donald Trump ordered it out of spite.Most of the more than 30 people charged over a January ICE protest inside a St. Paul church asked a federal judge on Aug. 31 to throw out the case, according to a joint motion filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.A large slate of lawyers argued the government charged their clients as political payback at the behest of the president as part of a selective and vindictive prosecution, the motion states.The defendants were reacting to Trump's directives, which "caused terror, violence, and murder in Minnesota" when they entered Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18, prompted by the knowledge that its pastor David Easterwood also worked for the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, their attorneys argued. Federal charges followed within days. Federal agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, on Jan. 22, and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrest on social media, claiming that NAACP leader Levy Armstrong "allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church." A grand jury indicted nine defendants a week later, and a superseding indictment in February added 30 more people.Days earlier, Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.The Trump administration's crackdown on protesters continued following the church arrests. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the VA hospital, was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer on Jan. 24 while protesting peacefully in Minneapolis, the motion says. The shootings occurred during Operation Metro Surge, which sent as many as 2,000 federal agents and officers into the Minneapolis area for what the motion describes as one of the largest single-city Homeland Security mobilizations in years.Those arrested at the Minnesota church, including Armstrong and others, pleaded not guilty in February to conspiracy against rights."They have altered the facts, just as they altered my image as a way of trying to criminalize nonviolent, peaceful protests and lawful dissent against their unlawful and unjust actions," Armstrong told Democracy Now!, referring to an administration photo that appeared digitally altered to show her crying.The activist's protests were based on the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a law Congress passed to stop violence against abortion providers. The law covers places of worship. No one had ever been criminally charged under the law's place-of-worship provision in its 30-year history, according to the motion.The vindictive prosecution motion notes that the charges are "unequal, oppressive" and have "a clear and dangerous chilling effect on the Defendants and anyone else who wants to voice their opposition to U.S. Government policies"The motion argues that the Justice Department brought the case "at the direction and behest of President Donald J. Trump" and to fulfill a "mission to satisfy the personal animosities of its chief client, Donald Trump." "Sadly, this is not at all hyperbole, but the cold hard facts behind this prosecution," the motion says of the department's approach.While these defendants face felonies, people convicted of blocking abortion clinics went free. Trump pardoned 24 people convicted of FACE Act violations within days of taking office in 2025, some of whom had been convicted in multiple jurisdictions, according to the motion.One pardoned defendant had live-streamed her intent to "terrorize this place" the day before she barricaded a Manhattan clinic door, crushing a worker's hand with such force that three people were needed to pry the door open, the motion says."The record shows that individuals who engaged in the same or much more serious and violent conduct, whether at a progressive liberal church or an abortion clinic, were treated differently," the motion says.Anti-abortion activist Mark Houck was charged with shoving an elderly clinic escort to the ground twice and was acquitted at trial, the motion says. He then sued the government, and a district judge dismissed every claim as not plausible.The administration reportedly agreed to pay Houck more than $1 million to settle the case on appeal without ever filing a brief in defense of the government, according to the motion."Not only were such similarly situated individuals not prosecuted, they were in many instances rewarded with large monetary payouts from the Justice Department," the motion says.Two other church disruptions drew no federal charges at all, the motion says. Protesters in Orlando, Florida, rose during a children's sermon at an LGBTQ-affirming church in March 2025 and shouted "Synagogue of Sin!" at the congregation, according to the motion.Republican congressional candidate Valentina Gomez stood up during a service at a Texas church in November 2025 and said that "homosexuality is a sin and whoever supports that is worthy of death," the motion says.Neither incident produced a federal investigation or a FACE Act charge, according to the filing.The dismissal motion is not the only trouble facing prosecutors. U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko ordered the Justice Department in July to hand over grand jury testimony and evidence so he could determine whether the government misled jurors while seeking the indictment.Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort filed their own motions to dismiss in August, with Fort arguing that she was covering the protest as a reporter."The invasion of Cities Church was a planned, coordinated effort to disrupt a worship service and interfere with religious exercise that placed congregants, including children, in fear for their lives," Doug Wardlow, litigation director at True North Legal, said in February on behalf of the church.Defendants asked the court to dismiss the case outright, or to grant them access to internal Justice Department communications and hold a hearing where they could present evidence, according to the motion.
Internal revolt as 'nuts' Apple execs appease Trump: 'There is not a soul who is for it'
Apple executives' decision to rename Lake Ontario "Lake America" on its Maps app is setting off a firestorm inside the tech giant, with employees furious that leadership caved to President Donald Trump out of fear of his wrath, according to a new report.Employees are furious that the company is rolling over because of higher-ups' fear of the wrath of President Donald Trump who demanded the name change in an executive order, media watchdog Status reported Wednesday.At the same time the public is rejecting the “deeply stupid” name change, which Google has also agreed to follow, Apple was late to the game and employees are not happy.The controversy intensified after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum appeared on Fox Business on Monday, telling host Maria Bartiromo, "I know that the president reached out to Apple directly, so I'm sure that we may be seeing that change coming up soon to Lake America."According to Oliver Darcy at Status, "While Apple had likely always planned to update its map to reflect the executive order—it had, after all, also swapped Gulf of Mexico for 'Gulf of America'—Status has learned that executives at the company were irked by Burgum’s comments. By disclosing that Trump had personally phoned Cupertino, the White House had framed any decision Apple made as one in which it 'was capitulating to the president’s demands.'"Inside the company, Status reported it would be difficult to find a single employee who genuinely supports the change."There is not a soul who is for it," one person familiar with the matter told Darcy, adding that "everyone considers it f-----g nuts." Still, Apple's leadership and most of its rank-and-file are described as "resigned" to these kinds of concessions under Trump's second term, understanding "that Trump will f--- with the company if the company doesn't do what he wants," the person said. The dispute over Lake Ontario's name has become one of the more visible flashpoints in Trump's escalating trade dispute with Canada, whose officials have mocked the renaming effort as absurd. Like Google's version, Apple's change applies "only to Maps for users located in the United States." Canadian users and much of the rest of the world still see the lake listed under its original name.
Trump's 'deeply stupid' stunt flops with voters — and a smirking Joe Rogan: analysis
President Donald Trump’s decision to sign an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” has been a spectacular flop with voters — and one very high-profile political podcaster, according to a new analysis.Two “Morning Joe” co-hosts Wednesday morning discussed Joe Rogan's dismissal of the move as a mere 14 percent of Americans voters report support for the decision. The segment begins with a clip of a smirking Rogan. “It’s to distract you from the fact we are in a war we can’t win with Iran — it doesn’t make any sense,” Rogan said. “Who cares if it’s Lake Ontario? It’s a good name. We’ve had that name forever."Co-host Jonathan Lemire and Willie Geist were quick to pile on.Geist reported that a recent Ipsos/Reuters poll found 63 percent of respondents opposed Lake Ontario’s renaming, a mere 14 percent supported the decision and 21 percent said they weren’t sure how they feel about it."Perhaps because it was so, so deeply stupid,” Geist said with a laugh. "Jonathan Lemire, this again, the case of President Trump diving headfirst into an issue that apparently has no audience.”"I don't say this a lot, but Joe Rogan? Exactly right," Lemire said. "It's meant to be a distraction; it's a culture war. And, you know, it's to get us to talk about something else. But there is a serious underbelly here, which is the fact that this trade war with Canada, as we just discussed, is going to have real political implications and not good ones for Republicans. And frankly, Willie, it also shows Trump's just running out of ideas. We already did the Gulf of America. Now it's Lake of America.” - YouTube youtu.be
Ex-Trump insider guts 'shadowy and repellent' partner behind 'unconstitutional' deal
A member of President Donald Trump's first administration delivered Wednesday a stark warning to his former boss over what he describes as the White House's "convoluted" plan to deal with a sinister partner.Elliott Abrams, Trump's former special representative to Venezuela, in a Washington Post editorial shredded the president's deal to claim 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil as an "unconstitutional" gambit — and warned he was relying on a dangerous partner to push it through."Because major U.S. oil companies have been unwilling to pony up large amounts of cash to invest in Venezuela, Trump has allied the government with the most shadowy and repellent Venezuelan businessman he could find," wrote Abrams. "When I served in the first Trump administration as special representative for Venezuela, we knew exactly what [Alejandro] Betancourt stood for and kept him far away from the U.S. government."Before delving into his many problems with Betancourt, Abrams details many problems he has with Trump's oil plan; namely that the agreement is unconstitutional under Venezuelan law that states the deposits belong to the people, who haven't agreed to it, and U.S. law likely doesn't allow the Pentagon to enter into the oil trade. But Betancourt is "worse" than these major legal problems, Abrams writes. Betancourt, who denies wrongdoing, is under a Swiss arrest warrant for alleged money laundering involving Venezuela’s state oil company and made a fortune under the "corrupt" Hugo Chávez, writes Abrams.That reportedly hasn't stopped senior U.S. officials from lobbying to resolve the Switzerland case or inviting Betancourt to Washington for meetings with the administration. The resultant deal, argues Abrams, is one that will do nothing to ease the pain American drivers feel at the gas pump."Hundreds of billions of dollars in investments will be announced — some by grifters looking for special advantages, some by oil companies looking for favor with Trump and some by the president himself," wrote Abrams. "The tragedy is that the United States is now the partner to an unelected despot...this oil deal will prove to be the great sellout — of Venezuela’s natural resources and its people’s right to self-government."
Barclays faces complaint over backing for power plant near world’s largest mangrove forest
Bangladeshi complainants allege Rampal power station’s pollution and climate risks threaten the Sunderbans, a world heritage siteBarclays Bank is facing a formal complaint over its financial links to a coal-fired power station near the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to millions of people in Bangladesh and India.Three complainants from the region have submitted a case to the UK government’s Office for Responsible Business Conduct, alleging that the British bank breached international guidelines by underwriting companies involved in the emission-heavy Maitree super thermal power project, also known as the Rampal power plant. Continue reading...
New constitution in Guinea-Bissau will undermine democracy, opponents say
Referendum result means fewer seats in parliament and new rules on candidates, ahead of December electionsGuinea-Bissau voters have approved a new constitution, which critics say will undermine democracy, that significantly expands presidential powers ahead of elections due in December.According to provisional results, 70% of voters approved sweeping changes in the tiny west African state’s first constitutional amendment since revisions that ended the one-party socialist state more than three decades ago. Continue reading...
