In a 59-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan also dismissed Trump's arguments for reducing damages to less than $1 million.

Kaplan said the unanimous May 9 verdict was "almost entirely in favor of Ms. Carroll," and neither a "seriously erroneous result" nor a "miscarriage of justice."

Carroll, 79, accused Trump, 77, of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and defaming her when he branded the incident a hoax in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform.

Trump, who is again seeking the presidency, is appealing the verdict. His lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Carroll is also pursuing a $10 million defamation lawsuit against Trump over comments he made in the White House in June 2019, after she first accused him of forcing himself upon her in the Bergdorf Goodman department store.

Trump had told a reporter he had not known Carroll, that the former Elle magazine columnist was not his "type," and that she lied to boost sales of her memoir, which had been excerpted in New York magazine.

Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said her client looks forward to collecting the $5 million, and "continuing to hold Trump accountable for what he did to her" at a trial of the other defamation lawsuit, scheduled for Jan. 15, 2024.

JUDGE SAYS TRUMP MISINTERPRETED JURY VERDICT

In seeking a reduction in damages, Trump called the $2 million award for sexual abuse "grossly excessive" because such abuse could have included groping Carroll's breasts through clothing, "which is a far cry from rape."

But Judge Kaplan said New York's penal law defines rape much more narrowly than ordinary people think of the term, and that Trump was wrong to insist it excused him.

"The proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll's vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm," the judge wrote.

"Mr. Trump's argument therefore ignores the bulk of the evidence at trial, misinterprets the jury's verdict, and (ignored) evidence of what actually occurred between Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump," he added.

The judge also said the evidence justified awarding Carroll $3 million for defamation, rejecting Trump's claim that the award was based on "pure speculation" about how Carroll's reputation was harmed.

Carroll filed her first lawsuit in November 2019. She amended it after Trump disparaged her in a CNN town hall one day after the $5 million verdict, calling her account "fake" and her a "whack job."

Trump is also suing Carroll for defamation, after she said "oh yes, he did; oh yes, he did" when asked on CNN about the jury finding that he did not commit rape.

Carroll wants to dismiss that claim, saying her statement was "substantially true" and reflected her thoughts as the verdict was read.

Trump faces many other legal problems. These include a federal indictment for taking classified documents and obstructing government efforts to reclaim them, a New York indictment over hush money payments to a porn star before the 2016 election, and possible charges over his efforts to stay in the White House following his 2020 election loss.

The case is Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-10016. Carroll's original lawsuit is Carroll v Trump in the same court, No. 20-07311.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

The post Trump Loses Bid for New Trial in E. Jean Carroll Case appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Wagner's failed June 23-24 mutiny has been interpreted by the West as a challenge to President Vladimir Putin's rule that illustrates the weakness of the 70-year-old Kremlin chief and the strain of the Ukraine war on the Russian state.

The footage, reposted by his press service on Telegram, is the first video evidence of Prigozhin's whereabouts since the night of the mutiny.

In the video, the authenticity of which Reuters could not immediately verify, a man whose voice and Russian sounded like Prigozhin's is heard welcoming his men. The video was reposted by his press service on Telegram.

"Welcome lads... Welcome to Belarusian soil," Prigozhin said.

"We fought honorably," said Prigozhin. "You have done a great deal for Russia. What is going on at the front is a disgrace that we do not need to get involved in."

Putin initially said he would crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolutions of 1917, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.

Since Prigozhin was last seen leaving the Russian city of Rostov on June 24, mystery has surrounded his fate after he was cast as a traitor by Putin. It is also unclear what Wagner, which Prigozhin said had 25,000 men, would do next.

The video was shot after night had fallen, though it was possible to discern what looked like Prigozhin's profile and a group of men.

'WELCOME TO HELL'

Since a deal was struck to end the mutiny, the Kremlin has sought to project calm, with Putin chairing a variety of meetings, meeting crowds in Dagestan and even discussing quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

Russian officials dismiss Western interpretations of the mutiny and say the West should not concern itself with such "scrapes".

The video posted on Wednesday showed Prigozhin receiving a Wagner black flag, decorated with the motto "Blood, honour, Motherland, Courage", from their camp in southern Russia.

Belarus said last week that Wagner fighters were instructing its soldiers at a military range southeast of Minsk.

Prigozhin says in the video that his men should behave well towards the locals and orders them to train the Belarusian army and gather their strength for a "new journey to Africa."

"And perhaps we will return to the SMO (special military operation in Ukraine) at some point, when we are sure that we will not be forced to shame ourselves," Prigozhin said.

Wagner was founded by Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces officer in Russia's GRU military intelligence, as a way for Russia to get involved in wars in countries including Syria, Libya and Mali with full deniability.

Wagner helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, fought Islamic State militants in Syria, operated in the Central African Republic and Mali and took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for Russia earlier this year with considerable losses on both sides.

Prigozhin had said his mutiny was not aimed at toppling Putin but at settling scores with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

After Prigozhin's speech, a man identified as Utkin, then spoke to the men.

"This is not the end. This is just the beginning of the biggest work in the world that will be carried out very soon," Utkin said in Russian.

He then switched to English: "And welcome to hell!"

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge Editing by Andrew Osborn and Jon Boyle)

The post Exiled Russian Mercenary Boss Says His Men Will Fight in Africa, Not Ukraine appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The U.S. military was scrambling to establish the fate of King, who made an unauthorized crossing of the inter-Korean border into North Korea on Tuesday, throwing Washington into a new crisis in its dealing with the nuclear-armed state.

King's motivations for his high-stakes gambit remain unclear.

U.S. officials said he had finished serving time in detention in South Korea for an unspecified infraction and was transported by the U.S. military to the airport to return to his home unit in the United States, when he apparently decided to join a tour to the North Korean border.

King pleaded guilty to assault and destruction of public goods stemming from an October incident, and on Feb. 8 the Seoul Western District Court fined him 5 million won ($4,000), according to a copy of the ruling reviewed by Reuters.

Two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the soldier had been due to face disciplinary action by the U.S. military.

Reuters was not immediately able to ascertain whether the disciplinary action was linked to his conviction over damaging the police vehicle.

The Seoul court said on September 25 last year King punched a man in the face at a club several times but the case was settled.

Two weeks later, on October 8, police officers responded to a report of another altercation involving King, and tried to question him. He continued with his "aggressive behavior" without answering questions from police, according to the court document.

Police placed him in the backseat of their patrol car where he shouted expletives and insults against Koreans, the Korean Army, and the Korean police, the ruling said. During his tirade, he kicked the vehicle's door several times, causing about 584,000 won in damages, the ruling said.

The court said the defendant had admitted to the charges, had no previous criminal record, and paid 1 million won to fix the vehicle, citing reasons in favor of him in the sentencing.

A spokesman for U.S. Forces Korea declined to confirm whether King had been in South Korean or U.S. military detention.

One of the lawyers who represented him at the time told Reuters King had spent time in U.S. military detention in Pyeongtaek since the October case.

The lawyer, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said he was unaware of the status of King's custody or whereabouts after February.

King's other lawyers listed in court documents were not immediately available for comment.

King's mother, Claudine Gates, told ABC News she was shocked at the news her son had crossed into North Korea.

"I can't see Travis doing anything like that," she told the U.S. broadcaster.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Josh Smith and Lincoln Feast.)

The post US Soldier Who Ran Into North Korea Was About To Be Sent Home To Face Disciplinary Action appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell confirmed the rare visit, which had been expected after it was announced in a joint declaration during a summit between South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. president Joe Biden in Washington in April.

"As we speak, an American nuclear submarine is making port in Busan today. That's the first visit of [an] American nuclear submarine in decades," Campbell told reporters at a briefing in Seoul, where he was attending the first Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) discussion with South Korean officials.

The group, aimed at better coordinating an allied nuclear response in the event of a war with North Korea, was also announced during the April summit amid growing calls in South Korea for its own nuclear weapons, a step Washington opposes.

North Korea, which test fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) last week, condemned the NCG on Monday for "openly discussing the use of nukes" and warned against allied plans to increase displays of military force, including the submarine visit.

Campbell did not identify the submarine, but said its visit is a manifestation of American commitment to South Korea's defense.

South Korea's defense ministry later confirmed the submarine's arrival and identified it as the USS Kentucky, an Ohio class SSBN.

U.S. SSBNs rely on stealth to ensure their survival and preserve their ability to launch nuclear missiles during a war, and they rarely make public stops in foreign ports.

The United States has pledged to deploy more strategic assets such as aircraft carriers, submarines and long-range bombers to South Korea to deter North Korea, which has developed increasingly powerful missiles that can hit targets as far away as the United States.

The U.S. Navy fields 14 SSBNs, often referred to as "boomers." The Ohio-class submarines carry 20 Trident II D5 missiles, each of which can deliver up to eight nuclear warheads to targets as far as 12,000 km (7,500 miles) away.

There were regular SSBN visits to South Korea in the 1970s, another period when South Korea was debating the strength of the U.S. commitment and the need for its own nuclear arsenal, according a report by the Federation of American Scientists.

NUCLEAR PLANS

South Korea's principal deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo, who co-chaired the meeting, said the discussions are enough to ensure there is no need for South Korea to develop its own nuclear weapons.

The two sides agreed to facilitate information sharing—including establishing a secure communication network—and coordination and planning in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, which would face an "overwhelming" allied response, Kim said.

The allies will also develop "operations, exercises, simulations, trainings, and investment activities" to bolster nuclear deterrence and response capabilities on the Korean Peninsula, according to a statement released after the meeting.

Yoon said the NCG would be a "starting point" to build a strong and effective deterrence against North Korea.

"Through a South Korea-U.S. alliance upgraded to a new nuclear-based paradigm, we will make substantial efforts to fundamentally block North Korea's nuclear and missile threats," Yoon told a briefing.

China and North Korea have criticised the group's formation as further raising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

When asked whether South Korea will have a role in U.S. decision making, a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters the group was more about sharing information.

"A lot of the objective here is to make sure that our South Korean allies have more transparency, more access, more direct connection with planning, so that they can understand how government officials have long been thinking about what goes into defense and deterrence for South Korea," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Ju-min Park and Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Soo-hyang Choi in Seoul; Editing by Ed Davies, Stephen Coates, Lincoln Feast, Michael Perry and Tom Hogue)

The post US Deploys Nuclear-Armed Submarine to South Korea as North Korea Flexes Nuclear Muscles appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Russia said it hit fuel storage in Odesa and a plant making seaborne drones there, as part of "mass revenge strikes" in retaliation for attacks by Ukraine that knocked out its road bridge to the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

Shortly after the bridge was hit on Monday, Moscow withdrew from a year-old U.N.-brokered grain export deal, a move the United Nations said risked creating hunger around the world.

Falling debris and blast waves damaged several homes and unspecified port infrastructure in one of Ukraine's main ports, Odesa, according to Ukraine's southern operational military command. Local authorities in Mykolaiv, another port, described a serious fire there.

The Russian attacks on ports provide "further proof that the terrorist country wants to endanger the lives of 400 million people in various countries that depend on Ukrainian food exports", said Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's presidential staff.

Ukraine's air force said six Kalibr missiles and 31 out of 36 drones were shot down. Moscow, for its part, said it had foiled a Ukrainian drone strike on Crimea, with no major damage on the ground, and reopened a single lane of road traffic on the Crimea bridge.

Six weeks since Ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the east and south, Russia is mounting a ground offensive of its own in the northeast.

Russia's defence ministry said its forces had advanced 2 km (1.2 miles) in the vicinity of Kupiansk, a frontline railway hub recaptured by Ukraine in an offensive last year. Kyiv acknowledged a "complicated" situation in the area. Reuters could not independently verify the situation.

Since Ukraine began its counteroffensive last month, Kyiv has recaptured some villages in the south and territory around the ruined city of Bakhmut in the east, but has yet to attempt a major breakthrough across heavily defended Russian lines.

The top U.S. general said Ukraine's counteroffensive was far from a failure, but predicted a long haul.

"I think there's a lot of fighting left to go and I'll stay with what we said before: This is going to be long. It's going be hard. It's going to be bloody," General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington.

FOOD RISKS

The Black Sea grain export deal brokered a year ago by Turkey and the United Nations was one of the only diplomatic successes of the war, lifting a de facto Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports and heading off a global food emergency.

Ukraine and Russia are both among the world's biggest exporters of grain and other foodstuffs. If Ukrainian grain is again blocked from the market, prices could soar around the world, hitting the poorest countries hardest.

Russia's move was condemned by several G20 members at a finance and economic policymakers meeting on Tuesday, though host India said it had been unable to reach a consensus due to objections from China and Russia.

Moscow spurned calls from Ukraine to allow shipping to resume without Russian participation, with the Kremlin openly saying ships entering the area without its guarantees would be in danger.

"We're talking about an area that's close to a war zone," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "Without the appropriate security guarantees, certain risks arise there. So if something is formalised without Russia, these risks should be taken into account."

Russia says it could return to the grain deal, but only if its demands are met for rules to be eased for its own exports of food and fertiliser. Western countries call that an attempt to use leverage over food supplies to force a weakening in financial sanctions, which already allow Russia to sell food.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for the grain deal to continue without Russia, effectively seeking Turkey's backing to negate the Russian blockade. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, the deal's sponsor, says he thinks Moscow can be persuaded to return.

Any attempt to reopen Ukrainian grain shipments without Russia's participation would depend on insurance companies agreeing to provide coverage. Industry sources have told Reuters they are considering the implications.

SLOW COUNTEROFFENSIVE

Russia's claim on Tuesday to have advanced around Kupiansk was a rare sign of Moscow attempting to go back on the offensive since Kyiv launched its counteroffensive last month.

Oleksander Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, described the situation in that area as "complicated but under control". Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern grouping of forces, said the Russian military had amassed more than 100,000 troops and more than 900 tanks in the area.

Both sides have endured bitter losses in Europe's bloodiest combat since World War Two, yet front lines have moved only incrementally since last November, despite a massive Russian winter offensive followed by Ukraine's counterassault.

Ukraine's counteroffensive has made limited gains near Bakhmut and along two major axes in the south, but its assault force equipped with billions of dollars worth of new Western weapons and ammunition has yet to confront the main Russian defensive line.

Kyiv says it is deliberately advancing slowly to avoid high casualties on fortified defensive lines strewn with landmines, and is focused for now on degrading Russia's logistics and command. Moscow says the Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus, Writing by Peter Graff and Alex Richardson, Editing by Angus MacSwan)

The post Russia Strikes Ukraine's Grain Ports appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

In May, the White House had announced that the Biden administration would be making a series of moves in the region, but at the time did not say what it would include.

"The [Pentagon] is increasing our presence and ability to monitor the [Strait of Hormuz] and surrounding waters," Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters. It was not clear where exactly the additional jets would be placed and how long they would stay in the region.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Navy said it had intervened to prevent Iran from seizing two commercial tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Since 2019, there have been a series of attacks on shipping in strategic Gulf waters at times of tension between the United States and Iran.

About a fifth of the world's crude oil and oil products passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point between Iran and Oman.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

The post US Sends Forces to Middle East in Response to Iranian Attacks on Commercial Ships appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The post Trump Says DOJ Sent Him Target Letter in January 6 Probe, Signaling He Is About To Be Indicted appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The person was taking part in a tour to the Joint Security Area on the demilitarised zone (DMZ) border separating the two Koreas since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War where soldiers from both sides stand guard.

South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo daily, citing South Korea's army, identified the person as Travis King, a U.S. army soldier with the rank of private second class. The newspaper later deleted the name.

Reuters could not immediately establish the identity of the person.

"A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)," the U.N. Command (UNC) said on Twitter.

"We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident," it added, referring to North Korea's People's Army.

The man was with a group of visitors, including civilians, to the Panmunjom truce village when he suddenly bolted over the brick line marking the border, Donga and the Chosun Ilbo daily newspapers reported, citing South Korean army sources.

Colonel Isaac Taylor, spokesperson for the U.S. military in South Korea (USFK) and the U.N. Command, declined to confirm whether the individual was a U.S. Army soldier or a member of USFK, saying he had nothing to add to the UNC statement.

"We're still doing some research into this, and everything that happened," he told Reuters.

The White House, the U.S. State Department and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The crossing comes at a sensitive time amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the arrival of a U.S. nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine in South Korea for a rare visit in a warning to North Korea over its own military activities.

North Korea has been testing increasingly powerful missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, including a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched last week.

South Korea's Defence Ministry said it did not immediately have any information on the border incident.

U.S. State Department travel advisory bans U.S. nationals from entering North Korea "due to the continuing serious risk of arrest and long term detention of U.S. nationals."

The ban was implemented after U.S. college student Otto Warmbier was detained by North Korean authorities while on a tour of the country in 2015. He died in 2017, days after he was released from North Korea and returned to the United States in a coma.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Soo-hyang Choi, Ju-min Park and Josh Smith; Writing by Jack Kim, Editing by Andrew Heavens and Tomasz Janowski)

The post US National Believed To Be in North Korea Custody After Crossing Border for Tour appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

At the end of a televised video meeting with national and regional officials to assess the consequences of the attack, Putin called it a cruel and senseless act, as he said the bridge "has not been used for military transportation for a long time."

Russian authorities had said a couple driving over the bridge to go on holiday in Crimea had been killed, and their 14-year-old daughter had been injured.

Kyiv did not officially claim responsibility, but Ukrainian media said Ukrainian security services had deployed maritime drones against the bridge.

The attack was similar to one in October, implicitly claimed by Ukraine, that put both the road and rail bridges out of action for a time.

After two such incidents in his war with Ukraine, Putin demanded "concrete" proposals to ensure the security of the bridge, a prestige project that he instigated after Russia seized and then unilaterally annexed the peninsula on the Black Sea from Ukraine in 2014.

Ukraine has vowed to take Crimea back, along with all the territory that Russia has seized since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine—which Moscow calls a "special military operation"—in February 2022.

The latest attack coincided with the summer holiday season, and meant Russian tourists wanting to drive to or from Crimea would face the prospect of long queues for a car ferry, or crossing territory seized by Russia that Ukraine has vowed to recapture.

Deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin told the video conference that there was no damage to the pylons of the 19-km (12-mile) bridge, but that a span carrying traffic in one direction had been completely destroyed and would have to be rebuilt.

He said road traffic would resume in one direction by Sept. 15, and would be restored in both directions by Nov. 1. The parallel railway bridge was not damaged.

Kyiv says Russians have no business holidaying on seized territory, especially while Moscow is bombing Ukraine.

(Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Sandra Maler)

The post Putin Says Russia Is Preparing Response to Attack on Crucial Bridge to Crimea appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Russia said two civilians were killed and their daughter wounded in what Moscow cast as a terrorist attack on the road bridge, a major artery for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said there was no link between the attack and its decision to suspend the grain deal, over what it called a failure to meet its demands to implement a parallel agreement easing rules for its own food and fertilizer exports.

"In fact, the Black Sea agreements ceased to be valid today," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "Unfortunately, the part of these Black Sea agreements concerning Russia has not been implemented so far, so its effect is terminated."

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the grain deal's sponsor, said he still believed Russian president Vladimir Putin wanted it to continue. The Russian and Turkish foreign ministers would talk later on Monday, he told reporters.

"I hope that with this discussion, we can make some progress and continue on our way without a pause," Erdogan said.

Russia's foreign ministry said it would consider rejoining the grain deal if it saw "concrete results" on its demands.

The blast on the road bridge to Crimea could have a direct impact on Moscow's ability to supply its troops in southern Ukraine, and reveals the vulnerability of Russia's own Black Sea infrastructure to devices such as seaborne drones: small, fast remote-controlled boats packed with explosives.

Images showed a section of the road bridge had come down and traffic was halted in both directions, although a parallel railway bridge was still operational. Blasts were reported before dawn on the 12-mile bridge, which Putin ordered built after seizing and annexing the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

Kyiv gave no official account of the blasts but Ukrainian media quoted unidentified officials as saying Ukraine's Security Service was behind it. Ukraine has long maintained that the bridge was built illegally, and its use by Russia for military supplies makes it a legitimate target. It was last hit by a massive explosion and fire in October.

Russia's suspension of the Black Sea grain deal could drive up food prices across the globe, especially in the poorest countries. Ukraine and Russia are both among the world's biggest exporters of grain and other foodstuffs.

The grain deal was hailed as preventing a global food emergency when it was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last year, halting a de facto blockade of Ukrainian ports by Russia, which agreed to let ships pass after inspections in Turkey.

Global commodity food prices rose on Monday, though the increase was limited, suggesting traders did not yet anticipate a severe supply crisis. The Chicago Board of Trade's most active wheat Wv1 contract was up 3.0% at $6.81-3/4 a bushel at 1056 GMT after earlier rising over 4%.

Putin had threatened last week to walk out of the grain deal, while also saying Russia could return to it if its demands were met.

"We can suspend our participation in the deal, and if everyone once again says that all the promises made to us will be fulfilled, then let them fulfil this promise. We will immediately rejoin this deal," Putin said last week.

Western countries say Russia is trying to use its leverage over the grain deal to weaken financial sanctions, which do not apply to Russia's agricultural exports.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen described Russia's suspension of the agreement as a "cynical move" and said the EU would continue to try to secure food for poor countries.

WITHOUT RUSSIA?

Russia has agreed three times in the past year to extend the Black Sea deal, despite repeatedly threatening to walk out. It suspended participation after an attack on its fleet by seaborne Ukrainian drones in October, leading to a few days when Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations kept exports going under the deal without Moscow.

Denys Marchuk, deputy head of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, the main agribusiness organization in Ukraine, said seaborne exports could proceed again without Russian agreement.

"If there will be safety guarantees from our partners, then why not conduct the grain initiative without Russia's participation?" he told Reuters.

Any such resumption of Ukrainian sea exports without Russia's blessing would probably depend on insurers. Industry sources told Reuters they were studying whether to freeze their coverage.

"Some underwriters will look to take advantage with a hefty increase in rates. Others will stop offering cover. The [key] question is whether Russia mines the area which would effectively cease any form of cover being offered," one insurance industry source said.

The latest blast on Russia's bridge to Crimea follows months of Ukrainian strikes on Russian supply lines as Kyiv pursues a counteroffensive to drive Russian forces out of its territory.

Unverified imagery showed a section of road on the bridge had split and was listing to one side, with metal barriers buckled. Dash cam footage showed drivers braking sharply shortly after the incident.

Russian officials said a Russian Su-25 fighter-bomber crashed into the Sea of Azov on Monday, but the pilot ejected successfully and there was no indication of an attack. The bridge to Crimea spans the mouth of the sea.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive, which began last month, has so far been slow going, capturing a string of small hamlets in the south and some territory around Bakhmut, the small eastern city Russia captured in May after the war's deadliest combat. Kyiv said on Monday its forces had captured another 18 sq km of territory over the past week, bringing the total captured to more than 210 sq km.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Max Hunder in Kyiv and Reuters bureauxWriting by Peter GraffEditing by Philippa Fletcher)

The post Russia Says It Will Shut Down Ukraine's Grain Exports appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Manchin said in a statement the labor secretary "should have the experience to collaboratively lead both labor and industry to forge compromises acceptable to both parties" and added he had concerns that "Su's more progressive background prevents her from doing this."

President Joe Biden nominated Su, a civil rights lawyer and former California labor commissioner who has served as a deputy labor secretary since 2021, to become labor secretary in February. Su previously served as California's labor secretary.

Su has been controversial for her time as California labor secretary, when she oversaw an estimated $31 billion in fraudulent unemployment payouts after freezing checks on claims. California’s unemployment insurance fund is now in a nearly $20 billion hole.

She was tapped to replace Marty Walsh, who left the post in March to become head of the National Hockey League players' union. Su became acting secretary when Walsh stepped down.

Democrats narrowly control the Senate 51-49 with the support of three independents. No Republicans have endorsed Su. If both Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who switched from being a Democrat to an independent in December, oppose Su, she would not be able to win confirmation without Republican support.

A White House official said Biden and his aides continued to fight for Su's confirmation because she is "highly-qualified, experienced, and has proven herself time and time again when it comes to delivering for America's workers and our economy."

"The president's support for Acting Secretary Su is unwavering, and we hope Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema reconsider their position," the White House official added.

Asked if she had taken a position on Su, a spokesperson for Sinema said the senator "doesn't preview her votes."

Last month, Su helped negotiate a crucial contract deal between U.S. West Coast seaport employers and the union representing 22,000 workers.

Su's nomination has been pending since a Senate committee voted along party lines in April to advance her nomination.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who chaired Su's confirmation hearing, said earlier she is "prepared to take on powerful special interests and stand up for the needs of the working class of this country."

(Reporting by Rami Ayyub, Nandita Bose and David Shepardson; Editing by Kanishka Singh and Jamie Freed)

The post Biden Labor Secretary Nominee Julie Su Loses Support of Key Dem appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which sets policy for the Pentagon and authorizes $886 billion in spending, was approved 219-210.

The vote was largely along party lines, a departure from the typical bipartisan support for a bill that has passed every year since 1961.

The House voted 221 to 213 for an amendment that would reverse the Defense Department's policy of reimbursing expenses for service members who travel to obtain an abortion.

"House Republicans today passed an NDAA that increases our military’s lethality and decreases the wokeness that has been infused in its ranks in recent years," Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R., Ga.) said of the bill.

The House measure includes a pay raise for members of the military, initiatives to counter China, and an additional $300 million to support Ukraine as it responds to the February 2021 invasion by Russia.

House Republicans were able to pass their amendments without Democratic support, but such provisions would die in the Senate, where President Joe Biden's fellow Democrats hold a 51-49 majority.

Debate in that chamber is set to begin on Tuesday.

The Senate is expected to pass its version of the NDAA later this month, after which the two chambers will negotiate a compromise that would come up for a vote later this year.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Ismail Shakil and David Gregorio)

The post House GOP Passes Defense Bill With Abortion Restrictions appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The United States detected a breach of federal government accounts "fairly rapidly" and managed to prevent further breaches, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America program.

The U.S. State and Commerce Departments were among the affected agencies, and hackers gained access to the email accounts of Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and State Department officials, the Washington Post reported, citing U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The hackers reportedly had access to the government emails for about a month before officials caught on to the breach.

Raimondo is the only known Cabinet-level official to have their account breached in the incident.

Microsoft said in a statement that the hacking group—which it dubbed Storm-0558—forged digital authentication tokens to access webmail accounts running on the firm's Outlook service. The activity began in May, Microsoft said.

"As with any observed nation-state actor activity, Microsoft has contacted all targeted or compromised organizations directly via their tenant admins and provided them with important information to help them investigate and respond," the company added.

Microsoft did not say which organizations or governments had been affected, but added that the hacking group involved primarily targets entities in Western Europe.

China's embassy in London called the accusation "disinformation" and called the U.S. government "the world's biggest hacking empire and global cyber thief." China routinely denies involvement in hacking operations regardless of the available evidence or context.

White House National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said an intrusion in Microsoft's cloud security "affected unclassified systems," without elaborating.

"Officials immediately contacted Microsoft to find the source and vulnerability in their cloud service," Hodge added.

The State Department "detected anomalous activity" and "took immediate steps to secure our systems," a department spokesperson said in a statement. The Commerce Department said it took "immediate action" after Microsoft notified it of a compromise.

Private sector cybersecurity experts have said newly discovered hacking activity shows how Chinese groups are improving their cyber capabilities.

"Chinese cyber espionage has come a long way from the smash-and-grab tactics many of us are familiar with," said John Hultquist, chief analyst for U.S. cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Diane Craft)

The post Chinese Hackers Reportedly Had Access to Senior Biden Officials' Emails appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Israel and Iran have been locked in a Cold War-style shadow war for decades, with mutual allegations of sabotage and assassination plots.

On Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accused Iran of being behind a thwarted attempt to attack Israel's embassy in Baku. Azeri officials did not immediately confirm that.

"At its supreme leader's orders, Iran has in recent years waged a worldwide terror campaign of unprecedented scale, focused on Israelis and Jews. ... We are talking about more than 50 attempted attacks," Israeli media quoted Gallant as saying.

He credited Israel's security services and "close cooperation with many countries" for the foiling of the alleged attacks.

Iranian officials had no immediate comment.

Azerbaijan is a major Israeli defence partner on Iran's border.

(Writing by Dan Williams and Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

The post Israel Says It Foiled 50 Iranian-Ordered Attacks in Recent Years appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Last month, the jury found Bowers, 50, guilty of dozens of federal hate crimes in the trial at the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. Federal prosecutors had charged Bowers with 63 counts, including 11 counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death.

In the first phase of the sentencing portion of the trial, the jury briefly deliberated on Wednesday afternoon and then again for about two hours on Thursday morning before reaching their decision that Bowers was eligible for the death penalty, KDKA TV, a local CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, reported.

In the final phase of the sentencing portion of the trial, both prosecutors and defense attorneys will have the chance to make arguments on whether Bowers deserves the death penalty. Victims and families of those killed in the shooting will also have the opportunity to speak to the court. The jury will then deliberate Bowers' fate.

In federal capital cases, a unanimous vote by jurors is required in order to sentence a defendant to death, and the judge is obligated to abide by the jury's decision. If jurors are unable to reach a unanimous decision, the offender is instead sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release.

On June 16, the jury found him guilty on all counts, after defense lawyers accepted that he planned and carried out the attack. Jurors heard testimony from some of the survivors of the attack and evidence of Bowers's anti-Semitism, including multiple posts attacking Jews made on a far-right website in the months leading up to the attack.

Defense lawyers argued that Bowers suffers from major mental illness, including schizophrenia, and so lacked the necessary level of intent.

In their arguments in support of making Bowers eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors said that he had the necessary intent and premeditation to qualify for the sentence. They presented witnesses and evidence to show he carefully planned the attack and deliberately targeted vulnerable elderly worshipers.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; editing by Tim Ahmann and Bill Berkrot)

The post Jury Finds Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter Eligible for Death Penalty appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The blast that hit police and officials working at the Jalisco state attorney general's office was "an unprecedented act and shows what these organized crime groups are capable of", state governor Enrique Alfaro said on Twitter.

Alfaro told a press conference on Wednesday the overnight death toll of three had risen to six, and that 12 people were injured in the blast that occurred in the municipality of Tlajomulco to the south of state capital Guadalajara.

The governor said the explosion resulted from a "trap" set by the perpetrators who has phoned in an anonymous tip that there were human remains buried at the scene.

"This call was so our police would go there and could be attacked with these explosive devices," he said.

Describing it as an "act of terror", Alfaro said organized crime was trying to spread fear and panic.

A spokesperson for the Jalisco government said three of the dead worked at the attorney general's office, one was a local police officer and two were civilians.

Jalisco and nearby communities have been battling to curb gang violence that has frustrated the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The attack follows a similar incident late last month where security forces in the neighboring state of Guanajuato went to investigate a phone tip that there were bodies in a car. The vehicle blew up after they reached the scene.

One member of Mexico's National Guard died and at least three more were injured in that blast, which deputy security minister Luis Rodriguez Bucio this week described as a "car bomb".

(Reporting by Dave Graham; writing by Natalia Siniawski; editing by Jason Neely and David Gregorio)

The post 'Act of Terror': Mexican Gangsters Kill Police in Car Bomb Attack appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

In an interview with ABC television, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States had detected a breach of federal government accounts "fairly rapidly" and had managed to prevent further breaches.

The hacking group, which Microsoft dubbed Storm-0558, forged digital authentication tokens to access webmail accounts running on the firm's Outlook service, Microsoft said in a statement on its website. The activity began in May.

"As with any observed nation-state actor activity, Microsoft has contacted all targeted or compromised organizations directly via their tenant admins and provided them with important information to help them investigate and respond," the statement added.

Microsoft did not say which organizations or governments had been affected, but added that the hacking group involved primarily targets entities in Western Europe.

White House National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said an intrusion in Microsoft's cloud security had "affected unclassified systems", without elaborating.

"Officials immediately contacted Microsoft to find the source and vulnerability in their cloud service," he added.

China's embassy in London did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Beijing routinely denies involvement in hacking.

(Reporting by James Pearson, editing by Ed Osmond, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Kevin Liffey)

The post Chinese Hackers Breach Government Agencies appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

"President Trump is running for President of the United States and is currently the likely Republican Party nominee. This undertaking requires a tremendous amount of time and energy, and that effort will continue until the election on November 5, 2024," attorneys for Trump and Nauta wrote in a joint court filing late on Monday.

"Such preparation requires significant planning and time, making the current schedule untenable and counseling in favor of a continuance."

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, pleaded not guilty in federal court on June 13 in Miami to charges that he had unlawfully kept classified national security documents when he left office in 2021 and tried to obstruct justice when the federal government sought to retrieve them.

Federal prosecutors had already asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to delay her proposed Aug. 14 trial date until Dec. 11 to give both sides more time to prepare.

A spokesman for Special Counsel Jack Smith's office declined to comment on Trump and Nauta's request but said the office intends to file a response in the coming days.

Federal prosecutors and attorneys for Trump and Nauta are due to appear before Cannon on July 18 for the first time for a pre-trial conference to discuss scheduling and other logistical issues.

In addition to citing his campaign schedule, Trump's lawyers also told the judge that the unprecedented indictment raises "significant" legal questions and challenges that will be posed by the classified nature of the evidence.

The documents case will unfold under a strict set of rules prescribed by the Classified Information Procedures Act, which aims to protect classified evidence and manage disclosure of such records at a public jury trial.

Nauta, Trump's aide, pleaded not guilty last week in a Miami federal courthouse to charges that he had helped Trump hide top secret documents taken when he left the White House.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington and Bharat Govind Gautam in Bengaluru; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Alistair Bell)

The post Trump Requests Delay in Classified Docs Trial appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Turkey, which had been the main stumbling bloc on Sweden's path towards the alliance, had requested in October 2021 to buy $20 billion of Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernisation kits for its existing warplanes.

Speaking ahead of a summit of NATO leaders that started on Tuesday in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, Sullivan said U.S. President Joe Biden "had been clear that he supports the transfer".

"He has placed no caveats on this ... He intends to move forward with that transfer," Sullivan told reporters, without giving any details on the timing.

U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, a Democrat who had blocked the transfer, said on Monday he is in talks with the Biden administration about his hold and that he could make a decision "in the next week", suggesting he could lift it.

Both Turkish officials and the Biden administration have rejected any suggestion that Ankara's approval of Sweden's NATO accession was being linked to the F-16 sale in the months of talks to address Turkish opposition.

However, some diplomats and analysts believe that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had been using Swedish membership to pressure Washington on the warplanes, and that Biden made a deal.

"There seems to have been a big push by the Biden administration to allow Turkey to modernise its air force and acquire new F-16s," said Camille Grand, a defence specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

"This push together with the Swedish efforts on the PKK front might have played an important role in convincing Erdogan to move forward on Sweden."

One former French ambassador to Washington, Gerard Araud, wrote on Twitter in response to Sullivan's announcement that "'The Swedish blackmail' paid".

To explain its opposition to Sweden's NATO accession, Ankara had accused it of not doing enough against people Turkey sees as terrorists, mainly members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the United States.

A statement issued by Turkey and Sweden on Monday said Sweden had reiterated that it would not provide support to the Kurdish groups and would actively support efforts to reinvigorate Turkey's EU accession process.

Russian officials said Sweden's expected accession to NATO would have "negative implications" for Russia's security and that Moscow would have to respond.

TIMING UNCERTAIN

The timing of both the F-16 transfer and Sweden's NATO entry remains unclear.

Turkey's parliament is not scheduled to convene until after the summer, and Hungary also still needs to ratify the accession treaty, although Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement on Tuesday that it was "only a technical issue".

All NATO states need to ratify a new member.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Erdogan had agreed to push ratification in parliament "as soon as possible", but he could not give a specific time frame.

It took two weeks for Turkey's parliament to ratify Finland's membership. Finland had applied alongside Sweden after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 overturned the two Nordic nations' security considerations.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Justyna Pawlak; editing by John Irish, Nick Macfie, Heather Timmons and Devika Syamnath)

The post US Green-Lights F-16s to Turkey After It Agrees to Sweden's NATO Bid appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

"I'm glad to announce ... that President Erdogan has agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the grand national assembly as soon as possible, and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification," Stoltenberg told a news conference.

Stoltenberg declined to give a date for when Sweden's accession would be ratified by the Turkish parliament, the grand national assembly, which would decide on the exact timing.

Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year, casting aside policies of military non-alignment that had lasted through the decades of the Cold War as Russia's invasion of Ukraine reframed security considerations.

Applications to the alliance must be approved by all NATO members and while Finland's was given the go-ahead in April, Turkey and Hungary have held off on clearing Sweden's bid.

Stockholm has been working hard at its bid ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius, together with the United States and its allies, urging Turkey to abandon its opposition.

Erdogan has said Sweden harbors members of militant groups, mainly supporters of the Kurdistan Workers Party, who he accuses of organizing demonstrations and financing terrorist groups, while anti-Turkish protests in Stockholm have also raised his ire.

Meanwhile, Sweden has said it has fulfilled all the demands agreed upon in negotiations with Turkey last year, including introducing a new bill that makes being a member of a terrorist organization illegal, and stressed freedom of speech is protected in its constitution.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff said on Thursday that Budapest would not block Sweden's NATO membership ratification.

(Reporting by John Irish and Sabine Siebold; additional reporting by Johan Ahlander and Anna Ringstrom; writing by Justyna Pawlak and Niklas Pollard)

The post Turkey Agrees To Move Ahead With Sweden's NATO Bid appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.