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Planned Parenthood has vowed to take the Trump administration to court over a provision in the newly-passed megabill that would “defund” the nonprofit for up to one year. Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the organization, said on Thursday the reconciliation bill is an “unlawful” and “targeted attack” on the organization and its patients.

Paul Harvey on the Declaration of Independence Paul Harvey describes what our forefathers gave up to start this country

President Trump told Ukrainian President Zelensky in a call on Friday that the U.S. wants to help Ukraine with air defense, due to escalating Russian attacks, a Ukrainian official and a source with knowledge of the call said. Why it matters: Earlier this week the Pentagon paused a weapons shipment, including air defense interceptors and ammunication, to Ukraine's army. The decision caught Ukraine and many Trump administration officials surprise. Behind the scenes: The two sources said the call between Trump and Zelensky lasted around 40 minutes, with a major focus on Ukraine's air defense needs. One source said Trump was...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on the phone on Thursday about arms deliveries to Ukraine, a spokesperson for the German leaders told Reuters. Merz initiated the call with Trump, the spokesperson said on Friday. Spiegel magazine first reported on the call.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Friday he spoke with his United States colleague Donald Trump on the phone, stating that he discussed potential joint defense programs with Washington, as well as recently Russian strikes on his country. "We spoke about opportunities in air defense and agreed that we will work together to strengthen protection of our skies. We have also agreed to a meeting between our teams," the Ukrainian leader wrote on X. He stated that Kiev is ready for "direct projects" with the US "especially when it comes to drones and related technologies." The two presidents also considered...

Happy 250th our beloved US. God bless

It is no surprise that Steve Bannon has picked Butterworth’s. ..... Having been Donald Trump’s original explainer, godfather to US nationalist-populism and an evangelist to its far-right western siblings, he could hardly be less. Bannon’s former protégé, Raheem Kassam, a British alt-right journalist, who was once an adviser to Nigel Farage, is co-owner. Republican senators, Maga influencers and members of Trump’s administration come here to be seen. Yet its decor is a million miles from Mar-a-Lago’s Gulf bling. At the next table a portly young man in a bow tie is talking earnestly to his lunch partner about Opus Dei’s...

Clueless beach goers in this throwback video have NO CLUE what the 4th of July is, who we gained our independence from, or who the first president was!

Can the usual suspects please knock it off on Independence Day?

A top Russian oil executive was killed after falling from a window in a Moscow tower block. His demise is just the latest in a string of high-profile and unexplained deaths among senior executives in Russia's energy sector. Andrey Badalov, 62, was confirmed dead after falling from his penthouse on Rublyovskoye Highway. He was the vice-president of Transneft - Russia's state oil pipeline operator and the largest such company in the world. The company transports 82% of the oil produced in the country through its pipelines. -snip- Transneft confirmed Badalov’s death but did not comment on the circumstances. The company...

Today is a double occasion for me: Independence Day and my birthday, both o which I celebrate. A bit o Independence Day trivia: One President was born on this date; three died on this date. Can you name them? Also, what do Mickey Mantle and Adam Dunn have in common? (It relates to the Fourth of July.)

This showed up on my FB feed this morning. Waiting for confirmation on omaha.com. Omaha police are not happy with it.

Russia pounded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles on Friday in the largest aerial attack of the three-year war — just hours after President Trump admitted he was “disappointed” with his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A total of 539 drones and 11 missiles were fired at Kyiv over a seven-hour onslaught — injuring at least 23 people and damaging scores of buildings across the capital, Ukraine’s Air Force said.

A teacher who allegedly chugged booze and hurled curse words at students during a lesson that she interrupted to have them dance the Macarena has been fired. Alice Ashton from the UK was swigging from a water bottle full of orange liquid which smelled of alcohol and blaring music from her laptop during the health class, one of her 16-year-old students told a hearing on Tuesday, reported the Telegraph. She also called students “little s—ts” and “put her middle finger two to three inches” from another teen’s face during the “out of control” class at Ysgol Bro Caereinion school in...

There’s one night of the year when celebrations across the United States light up the map like no other. It’s the Fourth of July — when fine particulates fill the air. The impact fireworks can have on air quality can be quite striking and seemingly outsize, given their relatively small explosive force. And there have been stark examples in recent years of poor air quality spiking after the Fourth of July. In 2019, in Washington, D.C., for one, the smoke got so bad that many couldn’t actually see the fireworks, and crews filming the spectacle flipped back and forth to...

Dear Sen. Alex Padilla, I would like to extend my gratitude for your speaking up against ICE deportations at the DHS meeting last month. I was utterly appalled by the sight of a U.S. senator being roughed up and handcuffed. As a fellow person of color, you must realize the ugly truth of racism that underlies this outrageous action: racism against brown people (the darker the worse generally) within a structure of white supremacist imperialism that plagues our lives.

An Italian socialite has been charged with murder after she was allegedly caught on camera repeatedly running over a mugger for snatching her bags. Cinzia Dal Pino, 65, is accused of killing Nourdine Mezgoui, a 52-year-old Moroccan national, in the Italian seaside resort of Viareggio after he stole her bag, L’Unione Sarda reported. Video shows Mezgoui walking along the sidewalk when a vehicle suddenly appears to deliberately veer into him. The SUV then reverses and runs over Mezgoui three times as he lies on the sidewalk. The driver, who prosecutors say is Dal Pino, then gets out of the car...

You’ve all heard of Secretariat. You may have seen the film War Horse. Let me introduce you to the greatest horse of whom you’ve never heard. We called her “Softie.” Even as a foal, she seemed acutely aware that we humans are vulnerable creatures and she could hurt us, so she was always extremely gentle. Our church friends ran a riding stable, where couples and families could rent horses for the day and take them out on the trails. I was doing well with my paper route, so they hired me to help take care of their horses for the...

LANTANA, Fla. — One person is dead following a Thursday afternoon crash involving a Brightline train. The Lantana Police Department confirmed the driver of the vehicle that collided with the train had died. He said the wreck happened shortly after 2 p.m. at the intersection of South Dixie Highway and East Pine Street, in Lantana. The police department’s preliminary investigation indicates the vehicle had pulled under the crossing arm prior to the crash.