Musk claimed that if USAID activities could even send him flimsy evidence that they were doing something useful, DOGE wouldn’t cut it. But Musk’s and Trump’s DOGE cut USAID programs that in total saved half a million to one million preventable deaths a year.
The head of USAID during W Bush’s presidency says that the idea that USAID is a Marxist organization is ridiculous. He said that while he was head, he moved the organization to the right and focused on free market reforms, and when Obama came in, he moved it to the left; the career people do what the people at the top tell them to do. Trump just came in and destroyed it.
“U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion or completed their investigation, two U.S. officials told Reuters.”
“The first American service members to die in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran were killed in an apparent Iranian drone attack on a makeshift office space in Kuwait, three U.S. military officials with direct knowledge of Iran’s attack told CBS News.
At least six Americans were killed in a strike on a tactical operations center at the Shuaiba port in Kuwait, one of several U.S.-allied countries in the Persian Gulf region that have faced intense Iranian missile and drone attacks since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran early Saturday. U.S. Central Command has publicly confirmed the deaths.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the deadly strike was caused by a powerful Iranian weapon that made it through both air defenses and the operations center’s fortifications.
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three U.S. military officials questioned the assertion that the building was adequately fortified. They told CBS News the operations center was a triple-wide trailer made into an office space — a common setup at U.S. bases abroad.
The trailer’s only fortifications were T-walls, which are 12-foot-tall, steel-reinforced concrete barriers used to protect military personnel from explosions, rocket attacks and shrapnel, the military officials said.
But T-walls could not protect the facility from an overhead strike. Two officials told CBS News that the strike appeared to hit dead-center on top of the building.
Three officials also told CBS News, speaking under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media outlets, that prior to the attack, there were discussions on the ground about whether the tactical operations center in question should not have been used, as it concentrated too many U.S. troops in a location that wasn’t defendable.
Preliminary battle damage assessments suggest the operations center in Kuwait was attacked by a one-way drone, according to three U.S. military officials with direct knowledge of Iran’s attack
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two sources said there was no American counter-rocket, artillery and mortar system at Shuaiba port that could be used to bring down incoming drones or other deadly munitions. Kuwait had interceptors in the vicinity, but it’s unclear if those were employed.
“The school’s location, the nearby smoke, and the timing of the bombing – in the first round of strikes by US and Israeli forces – all give credence to the assertion that the school was hit as part of a series of strikes by the US and Israel on or around the IRGC complex. The US military said it was “looking into” the bombing.
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There is no indication, however, that the school is in any sense a military-use building: its classroom building and playground is walled off from the rest of the IRGC compound, and the colourful murals on its walls are visible in some satellite imagery.”
Nor were its classes exclusively reserved for children of military families
“an attorney and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) instructor, Ryan Schwank, testified before Congress that the agency’s new training program is “deficient, defective, and broken,” leading to constitutional violations and unlawful arrests. “Deficient training,” Schwank added, “can and will get people killed.””
“As in the Good case, experts in police training and tactics questioned why a federal officer apparently positioned himself in front of Martinez’s vehicle.
“You don’t stand in front of the car, you don’t put yourself in harm’s way,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a police use-of-force expert at the University of South Carolina. He added that there’s never a scenario where it’s justified, “because you don’t know whether this person is going to flee, and if he flees, you could be dead.””
“The records are part of a tranche of heavily redacted internal documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the nonprofit obtained as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
Though Martinez’s death on March 15, 2025, was reported by local media outlets at the time, federal and state authorities did not disclose that the shooting involved the team from HSI. In a statement Friday, DHS said the driver who was killed “intentionally ran over a Homeland Security Investigation special agent,” resulting in another agent firing “defensive shots to protect himself, his fellow agents, and the general public.”
The department did not respond to questions about why it had made no media release or other public notification of the officer-involved shooting over the last 11 months.
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The HSI officer who the report says was struck by the vehicle was treated for an unspecified knee injury at a nearby hospital and released.
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Reyes said she first learned her son had been shot by a federal agent, rather than a local police officer, about a week after he was killed. She was contacted by an investigator from the Rangers who she said told her there were videos of the shooting that contradicted the account provided by federal agents. DHS did not immediately respond to an email Friday about the claim that there is video showing a different account.
She said she was told by the investigator that the state report into the shooting was completed in October and that the case would be presented to a grand jury for potential criminal charges.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, which includes the Rangers, said in a statement Friday that the investigation into the shooting is still “active” and declined to offer more information.
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Martinez’s mother said she didn’t believe he would ever intentionally assault a law enforcement officer.
“They didn’t give him a chance,” Reyes said. “It’s so excessive. They could have done anything else besides that. It’s like they shoot first and ask questions later.””
“the low level of non-traumatic death of children reported by the survey participants does not support a scenario of widespread malnutrition, let alone starvation-driven excess mortality.
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Relying on original documents, visual evidence, and numerous other sources, we demonstrate that Hamas, according to reports from its own operatives, consistently employs Gazan civilians as “human shields” to deliberately increase casualties and, in turn, amplify international pressure on Israel. In fact, the practice of increasing civilian fatalities to limit Israeli operations and generate international pressure is a central component of Hamas’ battlefield tactics. Hamas has used civilian homes, hospitals, and schools to store weapons, launch rockets, house combatants, and establish operational positions. Its operatives also wear civilian clothing to blend in with the population in areas designated as “safer” or humanitarian zones. Most notably, Hamas has focused on booby-trapping a vast number of buildings, leading to widespread devastation in the Gaza Strip—destruction that surpasses that typically seen in high-intensity urban warfare in other conflicts.
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There is no evidence to suggest a systematic Israeli policy of targeting or massacring civilians. Our assumption is that every war involves war crimes, and it is the responsibility of the military to investigate, identify, and hold accountable those responsible in order to minimize such transgressions as much as possible. Throughout our research, we have also reviewed verified forensic evidence that may indicate war crimes committed by individual IDF soldiers. However, those who accuse Israel of genocide erroneously suggest that most civilian casualties in Gaza were entirely unjustified from a military standpoint, portraying those cases in which deaths do seem unjustified not as outliers, but as part of a broader, systematic, and deliberate policy of extermination by the IDF. The small number of instances involving persuasive supportive evidence of intentional killings by military personnel does not support this accusation.
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throughout the Israeli-Gaza War, no credible forensic evidence has been provided to substantiate claims of close-range mass killings of civilians or executions of helpless noncombatants. The majority of such allegations appear to be based on Hamas-related organizations who offer no tangible evidence. This contrasts sharply with the substantial forensic evidence documenting atrocities in the 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites, the Battle of Mosul, the Second Gulf War, and, of course, the October 7 attacks. However, there is credible forensic evidence for possible atrocities committed by IDF soldiers during the March 2025 attack on paramedics in Tal al-Sultan, a case that we examine in detail.
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Subsequently, we provide a detailed and comprehensive review of testimonies from physicians associated with the Palestinian American Medical Association (PAMA), who volunteered in Gaza and made claims of the systematic murder of Palestinian children by IDF soldiers. We demonstrate that these claims are statistically and quantitatively improbable, contradict other studies on the distribution of injuries in the Strip, and are scientifically dubious.
Specifically, we question why physicians who have worked in Gaza’s hospitals for months claimed they never encountered armed Hamas operatives or infrastructure on hospital grounds, which contradicts the testimonies of Israeli hostages, a kidnapped Yazidi woman unrelated to the Israel-Palestine conflict, a Kurdish volunteer physician, and many Palestinians, which are also supported by forensic evidence produced by the IDF. Furthermore, we show that reports from volunteer physicians on the use of Israeli drones armed with sniper rifles to hunt down children throughout the Gaza Strip are contradicted by the facts. The IDF does not possess such weapon systems, and to date, we were unable to find credible reports of similar platforms being used by other militaries as well, except an improvised platform used by the Ukrainians.
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We have found no evidence to support claims of deliberate bombing of civilians by the IDF during the war, nor any indication of carpet bombing intended to inflict mass civilian casualties in Gaza. While we did identify a significant number of tragic cases where innocent civilians were killed, some of which raise concerns about negligence, lack of caution, or even disregard for human life, it is clear that the IDF has employed numerous protective measures to minimize “collateral damage.” Some of these precautions are unprecedented in global military history and have come at a significant cost to the IDF, particularly in terms of losing military advantages such as the element of surprise. Moreover, senior military command has vetoed several operations due to concerns over disproportionate collateral damage. As a result, urban warfare experts have raised concerns that IDF tactics, such as focused warnings to evacuate specific areas, may set unrealistic operational standards for other militaries in the future.
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Reports from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry (GMOH) are unreliable, and this data is inevitably tainted by the “illusion of certainty”—the unfounded assumption that a single existing source is inherently trustworthy. The absence of official alternatives has led to a situation where all parties involved in the conflict, including UN-affiliated human rights organizations, Western countries, and even the Israeli government, rely on the GMOH. This occurs despite the fact that the ministry is directly controlled by Hamas.
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By analyzing original Hamas documents, we demonstrate that since 2014, Gaza authorities have mandated the classification of all fallen combatants as “innocent civilians.” Hamas has consistently sought to present the highest possible civilian fatality count, directing its health ministry to manipulate data. This includes concealing natural mortality figures, reporting statistically improbable daily variance in fatalities, and omitting the names of Hamas military operatives who have been killed.”
“A British graduate who was passionately anti-guns was shot dead by her alcoholic father at his Texas home just hours after they had an argument about Donald Trump, an inquest was told today.”
If the father had not owned a gun, Lucy Harrison would likely be alive today.