News And Current Events

Top Trump administration officials involved in Signal text chain leak about Houthi attack plans

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/reporters-say-found-waltz-gabbard-hegseth-private-contact-info-online?intcmp=tw_fnc

Authorities made the arrest just south of Washington, DC

https://www.foxnews.com/us/top-ms-13-leader-arrested-virginia

The administration has downplayed the importance of the text messages inadvertently sent to The Atlantic’s editor in chief.

https://archive.is/vnPIk

The alleged contact between the Israeli woman and the Iranian intelligence agent - 'Rambod' - took place from 2014 to 2018.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-847653

The comments came during the “40 Signatures Debate,” which is the Israeli version of the British “Prime Minister’s Questions”.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-847649

President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking broad changes to how elections are run in the U.S. is vast in scope and holds the potential to reorder the voting landscape across the country, even as it faces almost certain litigation.

He wants to require voters to show proof that they are U.S. citizens before they can register for federal elections, count only mail or absentee ballots received by Election Day, set new rules for voting equipment and prohibit non-U.S. citizens from being able to donate in certain elections.

A basic question underlying the sweeping actions he signed Tuesday: Can he do it, given that the Constitution gives wide leeway to the states to develop their own election procedures? Here are some of the main points of the executive order and questions it raises.

Voters would need to provide citizenship documents to register Trump’s order calls for the federal voter registration form to be amended so prospective voters must provide documentary proof of citizenship, such as a U.S. passport or a birth certificate.

It also says states should turn over their voter lists and records of voter list maintenance to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Government Efficiency for review, and directs federal agencies to share data with states to help them identify noncitizens on their rolls.

If states refuse to collaborate with federal law enforcement to prosecute election crimes, they could potentially lose out on federal grants, the order says.

Noncitizen voting, which is already a felony in federal elections that can lead to prison time and deportation, is exceedingly rare. Still, Trump falsely claimed in 2024 that it might happen in large enough numbers to sway the outcome of the presidential race, and it has been a top conservative priority in recent months.

Republicans have been trying to get a documentary proof of citizenship requirement through Congress, a goal this order seeks to accomplish. Voting rights groups have expressed concern about such a requirement, saying it could disenfranchise the millions of Americans who do not have proof of citizenship readily available.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/honduran-man-accused-killing-georgia-mother/

U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

https://archive.is/JEYep

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday strongly condemned Israeli strikes on Gaza, stating that they result in civilian casualties and the destruction of vital infrastructure.

Moscow urged both Israeli and Palestinian sides to return to negotiations in pursuit of a mutually acceptable compromise, the ministry said in a statement.

"Moscow deeply regrets Israel's resumption of military operations in the Gaza Strip. Experience shows that the issue of hostage release cannot be resolved by force. Russia strongly condemns any actions that lead to civilian deaths and the destruction of social infrastructure," the statement read.

The ministry emphasized that a resolution must address the fate of detainees, ensure lasting stability in the Gaza Strip, and initiate a full-scale reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave.

More than 48,500 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 112,000 others injured in a brutal Israeli military campaign in Gaza since October 2023.

Citing sources, the journalists write that the Kremlin is counting on Washington pressuring Kyiv into ceding Kherson and Zaporizhzhya to Moscow, citing their annexation being “enshrined” in the Russian constitution.

“There is no mechanism in the constitution for regions to leave Russia,” said a Kremlin-affiliated official.

“We need all of Zaporizhzhya and all of Kherson.”

Another Russian official said the Kremlin hopes the United States will pressure Ukrainian forces to withdraw completely from territories occupied by Russia.

“Either President [Donald] Trump influences them [the Ukrainian military] to pull out, or we are told, ‘Enter prolonged negotiations and simultaneously use military force to establish control,” the official added.

“That is the worst scenario for us because forcing river crossings is always a painful operation.”

He suggested that, as an alternative, Russia might try to capture parts of other Ukrainian oblasts—such as Dnipropetrovsk or Sumy—and then offer an exchange for Kherson and Zaporizhzhya.

Israeli military expert David Sharp said Russia is not currently capable of quickly seizing these regions by force.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/23/politics/mia-love-dies-cancer-battle?Date=20250324&Profile=cnnbrk

Israel is vowing to take tough measures to prevent China from using a second port facility in Haifa as a basis for surveillance, as a headache caused by a 2014 deal to modernize Israeli shipping continues to grow.

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2025/03/24/israel-vows-draconian-measures-to-contain-chinese-influence-at-haifa-port/

Papua New Guinea's national cabinet is facing a fierce backlash after resolving to expedite what has been called a "grand shopping list" of projects, including the development of a space agency.

Seventy projects are outlined in a confidential cabinet decision that has been seen and verified by the ABC.

The list includes acquiring a luxury island in partnership with a Congolese rapper, exploring the potential for a world-class Formula 1 track, creating a "Silicon Valley style hub" for entrepreneurs, developing post-quantum cryptography solutions and setting up a spy agency with training from Israel.

PNG ministers resolved to expedite the projects as part of a development agenda linked to the country's 50th anniversary of independence this year.

However, critics point out that PNG struggles to provide basic health care, education, policing and security for its people, and its national budget has been successively propped up by Australian loans now worth more than $3 billion.

Saudi news site claims senior rebel killed in strike on residential neighborhood in capital; Trump official claims bombing campaign taking out Iran-backed group’s ‘key leadership’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/houthis-say-one-killed-13-injured-as-us-airstrikes-pound-yemen-overnight/

Shin Bet chief Bar said to tell ministers: You’ve accused me of treason, threatened to jail me; tomorrow you’ll execute me * Lapid: 2025 state budget ‘greatest robbery in the history of the country’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-march-24-2025/

According to the activist, the mobile phone footage was later sent to her as a threat that it would be shared more widely if she continued to speak out against the Taliban regime.

In the video recording viewed by the Guardian and Rukhshana Media, the young woman is filmed being told to take off her clothes and is then raped multiple times by two men.

The woman in the video – recorded on a phone by one of the armed men – tries to cover her face with her hands. One of the men pushes her hard when she hesitates as he gives her orders.

At one point she is told, “You’ve been fucked by Americans all these years and now it’s our turn.”

The woman has said that she was arrested for taking part in a public protest against the Taliban and was raped while being held in detention in a Taliban prison. She has since fled Afghanistan. She said that after she spoke out against the Taliban in exile, she was sent the video and told that if she continued to criticise the regime the video would be sent to her family and released on social media.

“If you continue saying anything bad against the Islamic Emirate, we will publish your video,” she said she was told.

She believes that the attack was deliberately recorded to be used to silence and shame her. The person filming the assault captures her standing naked with her face visible and she is identifiable during the attacks.

Last week the Guardian published accounts of teenage girls and young women who said that they were sexually assaulted and beaten after being detained under Afghanistan’s draconian hijab laws.

An Istanbul court has formally arrested the city’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, on corruption charges, sending him to pre-trial detention on the day he received his party’s nomination to run for president.

The mayor of Turkey’s largest city and a rival of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was jailed on charges of leading a criminal organisation, bribery, misconduct and corruption, along with dozens of his staff and municipal officials.

İmamoğlu and at least four others also faced a separate set of charges accusing him of “aiding an armed terrorist group” for cooperating with a leftwing political coalition before local elections last year.

Demonstrators who massed near Istanbul’s city hall, angry at the decision to officially arrest İmamoğlu, faced police who pepper-sprayed crowds. As their numbers swelled, protesters increasingly clashed with police who fired teargas. In Izmir, video showed police attempting to disperse protests using armoured water cannon trucks.

Prosecutors ruled that İmamoğlu’s detention on corruption charges alone was sufficient, despite “a strong suspicion of a crime”, opting to detain three others on terrorism charges but not the mayor. This decision is expected to allow the Republican People’s party (CHP), Turkey’s largest opposition party, to select a candidate to control the Istanbul municipality, rather than the state selecting a caretaker.

The Turkish interior ministry issued a directive to officially remove İmamoğlu and two Istanbul district mayors from office, appointing a trustee to replace one in a neighbourhood long seen as a bedrock of opposition support.

İmamoğlu has denied the accusations against him, telling investigators during questioning that his detention had “not only harmed Turkey’s international reputation but has also shattered the public’s sense of justice and trust in the economy”.

His chief spokesperson, Murat Ongun, who was also remanded in custody, posted on X: “I was arrested on slander that was not based on a single piece of evidence!”

The Istanbul mayor’s detention in a dawn raid earlier this week has sparked mass protests across Turkey, with tens of thousands taking to the streets each night and often clashing with police. The interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, announced that 323 more people had been detained overnight as part of an investigation into the Istanbul municipality, the day after he announced that 343 people had been arrested for protesting.

The number of Palestinians killed since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023 has crossed 50,000, according to health officials.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday that at least 50,021 Palestinians have been killed and 113,274 wounded since Israel began attacking the besieged territory following an attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023. An estimated 1,139 people were killed and some 250 were taken captive in the attack in southern Israel.

The death toll is expected to rise as Israeli forces struck the surgical building inside Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis late on Sunday, causing a large fire to break out, the health ministry said.

The Israeli army and intelligence agency Shin Bet in a statement confirmed the attack, claiming their forces targeted “a key” Hamas member at the hospital, one of the largest health facilities in Gaza.

Earlier, medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 46 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks Sunday, mostly in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

Israel reignited its war on Gaza after its refusal to enter the second phase of a ceasefire deal it had signed with Hamas in January.

Entering phase 2 would have required Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza – a condition it agreed to in the deal mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States. Even during phase 1, which took effect on January 19 and saw the release of captives in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails, Israel killed more than 150 Palestinians in Gaza.

Tomas Rivas, 20, and 17-year-old boy charged with murder in Las Cruces mass shooting

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-mexico-mass-shooting-suspects-arrested-victims-identified

The six year old girl, who was not vaccinated, died from measles as outbreaks in West Texas and New Mexico have now reached nearly 320 cases, with two unvaccinated people dead from measles-related causes

https://www.the-express.com/news/health/166912/texas-mom-stands-decision-vaccinate-after-daughter-dies-from-measles

Amid uncertainty as to when part-ceasefire will take effect, Kremlin says it will cover only ‘energy infrastructure’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/21/russia-strikes-ukraine-drones-odesa-ceasefire