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On Monday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby responded to a question on whether the Iranian prisoner swap will make Iran more likely to take Americans hostage by stating that Iran has taken American hostages for a long time and “I can’t perfectly predict whether they’ll do it again or not.” Co-host Kate Bolduan asked, “Lingering question remains, is Iran more or less likely to wrongfully detain another American citizen, take them hostage because of this deal?”

-Harrison Floyd, a co-defendant in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia, is still in custody after surrendering at an Atlanta jail a day earlier. -Court records Friday showed a hearing being set for Floyd, but a judge told reporters that nothing was happening at the courthouse today. -Unlike Trump and his 17 other co-defendants, Floyd has been kept in custody because he didn’t previously negotiate a bond agreement, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.Court records Friday showed a hearing being set for Harrison Floyd, a co-defendant in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia...

After it was reported on Thursday that Iran had transferred five Iranian Americans from prison to house arrest, it became clear that a deal between the Biden administration and the radical Islamist state had been reached — which would include billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets in exchange for the Americans.This again raises the question — which we’ll tackle later in the article: Should the United States pay ransom to rogue states and others for the release of captured Americans?Anyway, sure enough, the United States and Iran have reached an agreement in which the Islamist regime will free the...

Florida authorities on Monday released video footage of a deadly police shooting that left a suspect with a lengthy criminal background dead and his hostage injured over the weekend. The shooting happened Sunday night when bondsmen were looking for 53-year-old Ronnie Clark for a warrant over his failure to appear in court on drug charges, Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons told reporters during a news conference. Clark had a long criminal history, with 58 felony convictions, and he was incarcerated three times.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A federal appeals court has ruled police can shoot hostages — even intentionally — if they fear for their lives or to stop a fleeing felon. The case is more than just a legal footnote to Don Davis. The Georgia truck driver was shot nine times by troopers and deputies who were trying to stop a murder suspect holding Davis hostage in his truck. While the shooting occurred in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court just this week let stand a federal court ruling that police owe the hostage nothing for his medical bills or...

An American businessman arrested in Communist China over a decade on apparently flimsy charges of drug trafficking will be put to death, Chinese government officials have announced. Mark Swidan, a Houston, Texas businessman, was arrested in November 2012 and sentenced to death in 2018 on charges he was in China to smuggle illegal drugs. John Kamm, chairman of the Dui Hua human rights foundation, tells Newsweek “the only ‘evidence’ against him is that Swidan once visited a factory where Chinese authorities allege the meth was manufactured, and that he had been in a room rented by another person where drugs...

More than two years after the alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was foiled, criminal cases against alleged perpetrators are still working their way through the court system. The Antrim County County Circuit Court has approved two motions from the state in the trial of five alleged co-conspirators charged with providing material support in the plot to kidnap Whitmer. Judge Kevin A. Elsenheimer approved the motions on Wednesday, which asked that the cases be joined for trial and that the court allow the admission of co-conspirator statements. The federal government foiled the plot in October 2020, calling it the...

It was once a symbol of hope. Haiti: the first black republic and first Caribbean state to declare independence. Now, it symbolises only death and despair. The poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, devastated by disasters both natural and man-made, plagued by disease, stalked by hunger, and now over-run by gangs. There has effectively been no government here since President Jovenel Moise was assassinated last year, a crime which continues to go unpunished. Into that power vacuum have moved hundreds of highly organised and extremely violent criminal groups which often have links to politicians and police - meaning they are...

Contact your Sheriff immediately! Understand this: 1. Sheriff’s have the authority to arrest federal agents. 2. Sheriffs have the power to deputize citizens, that means you and me. 3. Sheriffs have the authority to have deputies armed. 4. Sheriffs can launch investigations and have you as deputy, badged and armed, stand watch. You can have authority, a badge, a gun in the next hours. No need to take up arms without authority. Sheriffs are elected, need to hear from you starting right now. Aug 08, 2022, 22:22

There was a time when a family faced medical emergencies that they met their personal physician at the hospital emergency room and, together, the doctor and family made critical medical decisions based on the medical opinion of the doctor and the informed decisions of the patient. While radical changes have occurred in the medical field in the past 25 years, the true transformation of health care from a benevolent service to a profit making business truly came into focus in the midst of the COVID pandemic.Government public health mandates and financial incentives paved the way for hospitals to make a...

The Biden administration could sign in Vienna as early as Monday a new deal with the ayatollahs that would include a staggering hostage ransom sum totaling as much as 25 percent of Tehran’s entire annual budget.

DEVELOPING: Hostage situation ongoing at Apple store in Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/PhgC7I307Q — Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 22, 2022 Staff being held at gunpoint. This story is developing. #BREAKING #NETHERLANDS 🔴HOLLAND : #VIDEO HOSTAGE SITIATION AT AN APPLE STORE IN LEIDSEPLEIN, AMSTERDAM! ONGOING! Police Forces have surrounded the #Apple store, after a man took workers of the store #hostage with a gun. -Another Footage#BreakingNews #Amsterdam #Leidseplein pic.twitter.com/7wvBxx6fSh — loveworld (@LoveWorld_Peopl) February 22, 2022 Vermoedelijke gijzeling Apple Store Leidseplein #overval #leidseplein pic.twitter.com/mMmgnRFNQG — Thom (@vdhthom) February 22, 2022 Steeds meer leden van de DSI komen ter plaatsehttps://t.co/tFjc24uVgv pic.twitter.com/ubF0aepxI9 — AT5 (@AT5) February 22, 2022...

President Biden on Sunday called for the release of American hostage Mark Frerichs ahead of the two-year anniversary of his abduction if the Taliban expects to be recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. "Two years ago tomorrow, U.S. Navy veteran Mark Frerichs was taken hostage in Afghanistan. A civil engineer, he spent a decade helping the people of Afghanistan. He has done nothing wrong. And yet, for two years the Taliban has held him captive," Biden said in a statement.

President Biden on Sunday called the hostage situation at a Texas synagogue on Saturday an "act of terror." "This was an act of terror," Biden told reporters. "This was an act of terror [that was not only related to someone who had been arrested I might add 15 years ago and had been in jail for 10 years."

The suspect in an apparent hostage situation at a Texas synagogue is identified as Muhammad Siddiqui by ABC News, which reports that he’s holding the rabbi of the congregation and three others hostage. Siddiqui claimed during the livestream to be the brother of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national who was convicted in 2010 by a New York City Federal Court of attempting to kill US military personnel. She is currently serving an 86-year sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas. ABC, citing a source at the scene, says Siddiqui is demanding his sister’s release.

In a standoff that has lasted nearly a month, three cats based in Langford, B.C. on southern Vancouver Island have tried to claim ownership of a blender box — a saga that has fascinated social media users worldwide. It all started on Dec. 16, according to Nikii Gerson-Neeves, one of the trio's owners, when she brought in a new Vitamix blender and left the still-unopened, knee-high box on the kitchen floor. Her four-year-old tuxedo cat, Max, immediately jumped on the box, bemusing Nikii's wife Jessica, who took a picture and uploaded it to a Facebook group that celebrates chunky cats....

Officers received a call late on Sunday night from a distressed woman who said “a possum was holding her hostage” at her home in the South Island city of Dunedin. “When she would exit her house and attempt to reach her car, the possum would charge at her and she would flee inside,” Snr Sgt Craig Dinnissen said. When the police arrived and approached the front door, a juvenile possum came out of the dark and climbed an officer’s leg. Dinnissen suspected it was either an escaped pet or had recently been separated from its mother. Maurice the pet Possum...

Taliban holding six airplanes carrying AMERICANS AND AFGHAN REFUGEES 'HOSTAGE' at an airport in Afghanistan... https://twitter.com/ChuckCallesto/status/1434546651536965632

It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.. After details emerged that Biden officials handed the Taliban a list of names of Americans and Afghan allies they wanted evacuated, as well as allowing biometric devices containing fingerprints, eye scans and personal details of those allies to fall into Taliban hands, the president was charged with having ‘blood on his hands’ after he admitted that “that very well could have happened.” The existence of what has been dubbed a ‘kill list’ was first reported on by Politico via three congressional officials. The report notes that “the decision to provide...

Rep. Liz Cheney said President Biden should have ignored his predecessor’s negotiated May 1 withdrawal deadline with the Taliban and disregarded the advice of military leaders — decisions she claimed has led to Americans “probably being held hostage” in war-torn Afghanistan. “President Biden is the president of the United States and he’s had no problem in reversing course on other things. He decided he’s going to rejoin the JCPOA. He decided he’s going to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord. He’s reversed a number of decisions of the Trump administration,” Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the...