The university this year retained a law firm to investigate President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a neuroscientist, following claims that some of his papers contain manipulated data. While the firm's report found no evidence that Tessier-Lavigne himself doctored the papers, he "'has not been able to provide an adequate explanation' for why he did not correct the scientific record when presented the opportunity on multiple occasions," the Stanford Daily reported.

Stanford faced a major crisis under Tessier-Lavigne's leadership. Law school students shouted down a conservative federal judge, disrupting his talk in violation of Stanford's free speech policies, the Washington Free Beacon reported. School diversity dean Tirien Steinbach, who arrived on the scene, sided with the students, accusing the judge of causing "harm."

The incident prompted Tessier-Lavigne and law school dean Jenny Martinez to write a formal apology to the judge and put Steinbach on leave.

Following the controversy, Martinez announced that students had to complete free speech training. A Free Beacon investigation, however, found that the training "required barely a minute's effort" and that students could easily tune out or skip the required training videos.

Tessier-Lavigne has also decided to retract or write extensive corrections for several of his peer-reviewed articles. According to the Daily, retractions are very rare in academia, occurring only in .04 percent of research papers. The retractions typically come only after "clear evidence" surfaces that "the findings are unreliable."

The report also found that Tessier-Lavigne had a tendency to reward lab workers who provided him with results he found "favorable" while punishing those who were "unable or struggled to generate such data."

Another professor at an elite university faced similar charges in recent months. A Chronicle of Higher Education report credibly accused a Harvard professor who studies honesty of using fraudulent data in her research.

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"You are a stickler for the law. It reminds me of Les Mis and the famous person who wanted to get the person who had a sandwich," Khanna told whistleblower Gary Shapley, suggesting he is excessively committed to enforcing the law and self-righteous.

The comparison refers to the antagonist Inspector Javert, a central character in the novel Les Misérables and its musical adaptation. Javert pursues the protagonist, Jean Valjean, for breaking his parole after serving prison time for stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving child. Javert lacks empathy for criminals and is obsessively devoted to returning Valjean to prison for the minor offense.

IRS whistleblowers Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified before Congress Wednesday surrounding the agency's investigation into first son Hunter Biden, which they say was sabotaged by the Justice Department.

The whistleblowers allege that the DOJ shielded Hunter Biden and his father President Joe Biden from scrutiny, preventing prosecutors from filing felony charges and undermining the tax investigation.

"There were certain investigative steps that we weren't allowed to take that could have led us to President Biden," Shapley said when he came forward. "We needed to take them."

Hunter Biden agreed in June to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes, a move that will likely keep him out of prison. The plea deal ended a five-year probe into Biden's taxes.

The post WATCH: House Dem Compares IRS Whistleblower to Villain From 'Les Mis' appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The assailant, identified by authorities as Sawyer Walden Allee, threw an unidentified liquid on the councilman, Phil Brock, and his girlfriend in an attack that was caught on video. Brock had approached the man, who was tearing down signs on a store, to request he throw away the refuse. The man then shoved Brock, shouted obscenities, stole his hat, and threw the liquid.

Allee was charged with battery and grand theft, marking his third felony arrest in less than three weeks. He had been released twice from Los Angeles County jail on felony charges days before the attack.

"I turned to walk away. He took a bottle of some sort of liquid and threw it on me," Brock told KTLA. "Made a second throw and doused Kathryn [Brock's girlfriend] as well. We called 911."

Brock, who advocates on his campaign website for more police and for the enforcement of misdemeanors, noted that Santa Monica—like other cities across the state— is struggling with a homelessness problem on its streets.

California also faces rising crime as Democratic state leaders push to ease sentencing and empty prisons.

"L.A. is finished," Rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson said earlier this month after Los Angeles county, in which Santa Monica is located, reinstated a zero-bail policy for people charged with nonviolent felonies. The city saw an 11 percent increase in its crime rate in 2022.

Homicides in San Francisco increased nearly 40 percent from 2020 to 2022 and deaths from fentanyl spiked. The city lost more than 50,000 residents last year—the highest population decrease for any major U.S. city.

The post WATCH: Homeless Man Attacks Santa Monica Councilman Who Asked Him To Stop Littering appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Three county supervisors in Loudoun County, Va., including board chair Phyllis Randall, traveled to Africa in June to sign a sister city agreement with the mayor of Tema, Ghana. Receipts and travel documents obtained by ABC affiliate 7News reveal a lavish set of expenses from Randall, supervisors Sylvia Glass and Koran Saines, and two staffers. The group spent most of their time sightseeing, according to the itinerary.

In an interview with Randall, 7News asked the board chair why the officials and staffers flew business class, drawing a contrast to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who says he usually flies economy on commercial flights.

When asked about the comparison, Randall told 7News, "Pete Buttigieg is not the chief elected official of the federal government. I am the chief elected official of the county."

The report comes after Randall was found to be associated with members of a controversial Facebook group, "Loudoun Love Warriors." Members of the group doxxed and threatened Loudoun County parents who spoke at school board meetings, according to 7News. The county sheriff’s office opened an investigation into the group in May. Randall has condemned the group’s behavior.

On top of the $7,300 spent per business class ticket, taxpayers paid Saines's $200 overweight bag fee and a room upgrade for Randall that doubled the cost of her hotel stay. Randall confessed the county "shouldn’t have paid for" the upgrade and said she would "write a check" to cover the difference.

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The Court last month overturned Biden's order to give borrowers $10,000 to $20,000 in onetime student debt forgiveness. The Court said the president overstepped in his powers and circumvented Congress's power to make laws regarding spending.

The administration quickly moved to roll out an alternative plan to relieve student debt. Biden last month unveiled the Saving on Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. Proposed by the Education Department, SAVE would bring down payments by thousands of dollars over the life of many people's loans.

A single person making less than $32,805 a year would see their monthly payment go to $0 under the policy.

That plan, which is set to take effect in July 2024, could cost an estimated $475 billion over the next decade, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a research initiative at the University of Pennsylvania.

The model shows that the cost could even be tens of billions of dollars higher, The Hill reported:

The model predicts $200 billion will go toward payment reductions from the $1.64 trillion in outstanding loans in 2023, while the other $275 billion would go toward the $1.03 trillion in outstanding loans expected over the next 10 years. 

It is predicted that around 6.57 percent of future borrowers wouldn’t have to pay any money back under this plan. 

On the conservative side, the model says the program could cost around $390 billion, while the maximum projection is more than $558 billion. 

The Supreme Court's 6-3 decision that overturned Biden's first attempt at student debt forgiveness spared the United States roughly $300 billion in spending. Biden's Education Department had estimated the debt relief would cost $30 billion a year for the next decade.

The post Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness 2.0 Could Cost an Estimated $475 Billion appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

According to a Health and Human Services memo, which the House's coronavirus subcommittee made public on Tuesday, the Wuhan Institute of Virology "likely violated" U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) protocols, a conclusion that the memo calls "undisputed."

"There is risk that [the Wuhan institute] not only previously violated, but is currently violating, and will continue to violate, protocols of the NIH on biosafety," the memo says. "The immediate suspension of [the institute] is necessary to mitigate any potential public health risk."

The memo temporarily suspends funding for the institute and proposes a permanent ban.

House Republicans have zeroed in on a leak from the Wuhan Institute as the most likely cause of the pandemic—a conclusion supported by multiple government officials and agencies, including former CDC director Robert Redfield, the Department of Energy, and the FBI.

Under former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, an NIH subagency doled out at least $600,000 for researching bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab through a group called EcoHealth Alliance. As part of that research, EcoHealth boosted coronaviruses to be more infectious than their natural counterparts, according to a January inspector general's report. The report also revealed that Fauci's agency made egregious errors in funding and overseeing the research.

While the recent HHS memo names EcoHealth's "material non-compliance with terms and conditions" of the bat coronavirus grant as a reason for banning Wuhan funding, it does not affect funding for EcoHealth, which the Biden administration in May decided to resume.

As his agency funded the Wuhan research, Fauci in the early days of the pandemic repeatedly pooh-poohed the lab-leak theory. Fauci went so far as to commission a report to dismiss it and then cited the report as evidence against the theory.

The Wuhan Institute has 30 days to respond to the HHS memo.

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Levine, a man who began publicly identifying as a woman as an adult, was asked in a Friday interview on ABC why sex-change treatments should not be reserved for adults.

"Adolescence is hard and puberty is hard," Levine said. "What if you’re going through the wrong puberty? What if you, inside, feel that you are female but now you're going through a male puberty?"

Levine claimed "there are no medical procedures done" on "prepubertal children" but, "the standard of care allows them to explore that with therapy." Puberty blockers are administered early in puberty,

"Gender-affirming care is literally suicide prevention," Levine also said, adding that red-state bans of such treatments are are "unscientific" and "medically harmful."

Levine has been a vocal critic of restrictions on youth sex-change treatments. Last year, Levine falsely insisted: "There is no argument among medical professionals ... about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care" for children.

While the Biden administration last year issued guidelines endorsing puberty-blockers and hormone replacement therapy for minors that identify as transgender, more than 20 Republican-led U.S. states have banned such treatments.

The post WATCH: Trans Biden Official Says Kids Need Sex-Change Treatments To Avoid 'Wrong Puberty' appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

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)

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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)

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"Israel is an apartheid state. To assert otherwise, Mr. Speaker, in the face of this body of evidence, is an attempt to deny the reality and to normalize violence of apartheid," Tlaib said on Tuesday. The resolution supporting the U.S. ally passed overwhelmingly, with only nine members voting against it, all members of the Progressive Caucus.

The resolution stated that "Israel not a racist or apartheid state." It also said the United States will "always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel."

The comments came one day before a joint session address to Congress by Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who will commemorate the 75th anniversary of Israel's founding.

Tlaib and several other progressive House members, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) have announced they plan to boycott Herzog's Wednesday speech.

"There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma," Omar said last week.

Fellow progressive Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) has been under fire since the weekend, when she dragged Israel during a speech in Chicago.

"Can I say something as somebody who's been in the streets and participated in a lot of demonstrations?" Jayapal told the crowd. "I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy."

House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) on Monday called out House Democrats for making anti-Semitic comments and blamed the Democratic Party for not holding them accountable.

The post WATCH: Congresswoman Shouts Israel Is ‘Apartheid State’ Before 9 Dems Vote in Agreement 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.)

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Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesman for Ukraine’s Army Command East, said Russia has around 900 tanks and 555 artillery systems accompanying the troops. The Russian Army is attacking the region while Ukrainian forces focus on the southern front in their ongoing counteroffensive. The Russian forces have reportedly been unsuccessful in breaking through thus far.

"They are concentrating everything in order to break through our defense," Cherevatyi said. "Our soldiers are firmly on the defensive. They do not allow the enemy to seize the initiative."

Russia has also recently reinforced its positions around Bakhmut with additional forces ... and Moscow is seeking to break through in the Kharkiv region as President Vladimir Putin wants a big win.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar supported that view, saying: "As soon as we seize the operational initiative and begin to advance, the enemy immediately activates in additional directions to distract and draw our forces there."

The post Russia Is Massing 100,000 Troops for Offensive, Ukraine Says appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The Justice Department on Monday said 18-year-old Davin Daniel Meyer "pledged an oath of allegiance to the leader of ISIS and intended to travel to serve as a fighter for ISIS in Iraq," according to an affidavit supporting the charges.

The criminal complaint stated the FBI was alerted by an individual who observed Meyer develop "radical Islamic beliefs" as he "sought out ... extremist videos and content online and openly discussed his violent intentions." Meyer communicated about his travel plans with an FBI informant whom he believed to be an ISIS facilitator.

Since 2011, more than 300 Americans have tried to join ISIS, according to a 2018 report from George Washington University's Program on Extremism. In one 2016 case, a Mississippi couple who met in college were both convicted of attempting to join ISIS, masking their trip abroad as a honeymoon. The report noted Americans accounted for less than 1 percent of all foreign fighters who joined the terrorist group, with most coming from the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. A dozen of the Americans returned home, according to the report.

While ISIS has lost nearly all of its Middle Eastern territory, cells of the terrorist group remain in the region. Conflict arose last year at a Syrian prison after ISIS terrorists attempted to free their fellow militants but were defeated by a Syrian militia.

The FBI Denver Field Office is investigating Meyer’s case and an assistant U.S. attorney from the Colorado district is prosecuting.

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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)

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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)

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"I regret that this committee continues to hold hearings on things that do not exist, like a bogus ban on gas stoves, while ignoring the real economic and energy issues affecting people across this country," Brown said.

Brown’s claim ignores a proposed regulation and comments made by the Biden administration. A cooking appliance efficiency rule proposed by the Department of Energy in February, the department admitted, would effectively ban half of all gas stoves on the U.S. market. The Biden administration acknowledged the sweeping impact in an analysis published that month, but the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers says the proposed rule would prohibit a much larger proportion of gas stoves from being sold.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., a Biden appointee, in February questioned the safety of gas stoves and said a ban was "on the table."

New York in May passed a ban on gas stoves and heating systems in new buildings by 2026, while San Francisco regulators voted in March to eliminate gas furnaces and water heaters by 2027.

Brown suggested congressional Republicans’ push to prevent the Biden administration’s ban is "part of an effort by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to distract from the numerous wins of the Biden administration."

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"It would be a very slow process even if you had the money and the facilities were all in good shape," John Shages, who used to oversee the oil reserves for the Energy Department, told Bloomberg. "It could take decades."

"In the meantime, with the reserve at its lowest level in 40 years, the U.S. could be vulnerable to oil price shocks. It also means that during domestic supply crunches, the nation will be left to the mercy of global exporters like Saudi Arabia, Russia and the rest of the OPEC+ cartel," Bloomberg reported.

Over about six months ahead last year's midterm elections, the Biden administration sold off 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to lower gas prices, marking the fastest withdrawal in history. In December, Biden announced an effort to replenish the supplies, which are intended to prevent the United States from running out of oil in the case of disruptions or crises.

But as the Washington Free Beacon reported in May, at the pace set by the Biden administration, it would take 40 years to reach the previous oil supply levels. The DOE announced in June that it purchased 3 million barrels and plans to buy 3 million more.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in March the administration "will begin that process this year, but to refill the full amount is impossible." Granholm admitted that it would take years to return oil reserve levels to where they were before Biden entered office.

In an interview this week with CNN, Granholm said it is "definitely possible" her agency will pick up the pace but the job won't be done before the end of Biden's term.

The reserves are intended to prevent the United States from running out of oil in the case of disruptions or crises.

Among the recipients of Biden's selloff of the oil reserves was a Chinese state-controlled gas company. The Energy Department announced it sold 950,000 barrels to Unipec, the trading entity of the government-owned China Petrochemical Corporation.

Republicans have criticized the White House's failure to fill the reserves faster.

"DOE’s mismanagement of the SPR has undermined America’s energy security, leaving the nation more vulnerable to energy supply disruptions, and increasing the ability for OPEC and Russia to use energy as a geopolitical weapon," Republicans lawmakers in a May letter to the Government Accountability Office. They requested an audit of the reserves.

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"The RNC won't pay you in fried chicken, menthols, Rice Krispies Treats, watermelon, or weed," one troll wrote, according to a series of screenshots of the emails that Mainor tweeted over the weekend. "The Klan should wipe the floor with your ass!"

"You wanna be a party traitor and go under [Republican Georgia governor] Brian Kemp's whip," another wrote, "because he offered you more yams and collards?"

Other harassers called Mainor the n-word, an "aunt Jemima motherf*cking traitor," and an "Uncle Tom bitch."

Mainor tweeted the messages along with polite responses, such as "I'm sorry you feel this way. I pray everyone has a great Sunday! It's another day the Lord has made." In response to one email that told her to kill herself, Mainor wrote, "Dear Democrat, I'm sorry you feel this way. Support for anyone with thoughts of self-harm can be accessed by calling #988."

Mainor, who is black, cited the Democratic Party's "left-wing radicalism," "lawlessness," and decision to "put the interests of illegal aliens over the interest of Americans" as her reasons for leaving the party. The Georgia legislator joins a growing group of state-level Democrats who are switching their party affiliation. In nearby Louisiana, for example, two Democratic lawmakers this year joined with Republicans.

Most of the lawmakers have said the Democratic Party is no longer open to opposing viewpoints. "I didn't leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left ME," Mainor tweeted.

Democrats in the Georgia State House weren't much nicer to Mainor than the trolls. Mainor told Fox News Digital that, even before she switched parties, Democrats "crucified" and "abandoned" her for supporting a school choice bill.

Mainor, who represents a deep-blue district in urban Atlanta, faces a tough reelection bid in 2024.

Update 3:43 p.m.: This piece has been updated for clarity since publication.

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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)

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"If the Democrats want to believe that they do not have a conference that continues to make anti-Semitic remarks, they need to do something about it," McCarthy said Monday, responding to a question about Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.), who called Israel a "racist state" over the weekend.

Jayapal made the comment at a Chicago event this weekend after being disrupted by a pro-Palestinian protester.

"Can I say something as somebody who's been in the streets and participated in a lot of demonstrations?" Jayapal told the crowd. "I want you to know that we have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy."

McCarthy called on party leadership to condemn the comments.

"Do they think Israel is an evil state?" he asked. "If they believe differently they should take action against their own for the comments coming from their leadership from within their own Democratic Party."

McCarthy referenced anti-Semitic comments made by several House Democrats, including Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), and Betty McCollum (Minn.), as evidence of pervasive anti-Semitism in the House Democratic caucus.

"These are just multiple Democrats on multiple times consistently saying anti-Semitic remarks, and it has got to stop," McCarthy said.

Jayapal's comments came ahead of a visit by Israeli president Isaac Herzog, who will deliver a joint session address to Congress to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Israel's founding.

Several progressive members of Congress have announced they will boycott the remarks, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Omar.

"There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma," Omar said last week.

Omar added that because Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu "barred the first two Muslim women elected to congress from visiting the country," Herzog should not be invited. Netanyahu issued the ban in 2019. Tzipi Hotovely, the then-deputy foreign minister, said at the time that the country bars entry to "those who reject our right to exist in the world."

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