Israel's attacks on Iran may lead to regime collapse, chaos: Trita Parsi
Iranian-Swedish writer Trita Parsi joins Rising to discuss the Iran-Israel conflict. #Iran #Israel #Trump #Netanyahu
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Fox News
14 minutes ago
- Fox News
Wife of Boulder firebombing suspect begs Americans for help while judge delays deportation
The wife of accused Boulder, Colorado attacker and illegal Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman released her first public statement pleading for the American people's help after a Texas U.S. District Court judge on Wednesday ruled the family will be allowed to remain in the country pending deportation efforts. Soliman, 45, is accused of injuring more than a dozen people after throwing Molotov cocktails into a crowd of peaceful pro-Israel demonstrators, while yelling, "Free Palestine." Following the attack, federal authorities detained Soliman's wife, Hayem El Gamal, and five children, who lived about two hours away in Colorado Springs. A Colorado judge ruled last week that since El Gamal and the children were removed by federal officials and sent to Texas, any judicial relief had to come from a judge with jurisdiction. U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia, in San Antonio, issued a 14-day extension of the previously issued order prohibiting the family's deportation. Following Garcia's decision, El Gamal, through an attorney, released her first public statement regarding the case. "My five children and I are in total shock over what they sa[w] my husband d[o] in Boulder, Colorado earlier this month," El Gamal wrote. "So many lives were ruined on that day. There is never an excuse for hurting innocent people. We have been cooperating with the authorities, who are trying their best to get to the bottom of this. We send our love to the many families who are suffering as a result of the attack." She explained the aftermath of the attack from her perspective, detailing a late-night flight and stay at an immigration jail in Texas. "This includes my two four-year-old children, my seven-year-old, my fifteen-year-old, and my oldest daughter, who just turned eighteen in jail," she wrote. "We are grieving, and we are suffering. We are treated like animals by the officers, who told us we are being punished for what my husband is accused of doing. But why punish me? Why punish my four-year-old children? Why punish any of us, who did nothing wrong?" Since coming to America three years ago, El Gamal claimed the family "tried to do everything right," obtaining work permits, learning English and teaching the U.S.'s official language to other immigrants. "We have always tried to be good neighbors, cooking food for those around us regardless of whether they are Muslim, Christian or Jewish," she wrote. "I do not judge anyone based on his religion. If your heart is good, that's enough." The reference to neighbors practicing other religions comes weeks after Fox News Digital interviewed an observant Jewish family who recently moved into the same neighborhood as the suspect's family. In the days following the attack, David and Rivkah Costello described the horror of finding out that their neighbor had been charged in connection to the alleged hate crime. As the couple unpacked boxes, they said El Gamal showed up at their door, adorned with a mezuzah, offering cupcakes to welcome them to the neighborhood. "All I want is to give my children good lives," El Gamal continued in statement. "My oldest daughter volunteered at a hospital; she has a 4.5 GPA and wants to become a doctor, to help people in this country. My kids want to go to school, they want to see their friends and deal with their grief from recent weeks. But here they can't sleep. They cry throughout the day, asking me, 'When will we get to go home?'" She claimed when they were first detained, her children were "forced" to watch officials "rough-up" another detainee, adding they lacked privacy and decent meals. "Only mothers can truly understand what we are going through," El Gamal wrote. "I did everything for my kids. It has been two weeks in jail, how much longer will we be here for something we didn't do? How much longer until the damage to my children is irreversible? It has been so hard for me to stay strong for my kids. I'm so tired. I ask the American people, with all my heart, to please listen to our story and help us."
UPI
15 minutes ago
- UPI
Trump administration ending LGBTQ suicide hotline in July
Supporters of the LGBTQ community march to the U.S. Capitol on June 8. A specialized suicide lifeline for the LGBTQ community is ending on July 17. Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo June 18 (UPI) -- The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline no longer will offer a specialized service for LGBTQ callers as of July 17. The Trump administration issued a stop-work order to the non-profit Trevor Project, which has operated the specialized 988 LGBTQ suicide lifeline since 2022, the New York Times reported. Officials with the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration confirmed the stop-work order calls for the hotline to cease operation on July 17. Suicide prevention services remain available, but there no longer will be a "Press 3 option" for LGBTQ callers. "Everyone who contacts the 988 Lifeline will continue to receive access to skilled, caring, culturally competent crisis counselors who can help with suicidal, substance misuse, or mental health crises or any other kind of emotional distress," SAMHSA officials said in a prepared statement. Trevor Project Chief Executive Officer Jaymes Black said the end of the specialized hotline is very bad for the LGBTQ community. "This is devastating, to say the least," Black told The Hill. "Suicide prevention is about people, not politics." He called the specialized hotline a "bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible." The LGBTQ suicide prevention service was established in 2022 to address the needs of respective callers, many of whom "experience distinct mental health issues," the New York Times reported. Such issues include discrimination and rejection by family members, which contributes to high suicide rates within the LGBTQ community. SAMHSA officials said the Press 3 service option received $29.7 million in federal funding for the 2023 fiscal year and $33 million for each of the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years. The specialized hotline's entire 2025 budget was spent as of June, and no more funding is coming, according to SAMHSA. The suicide prevention hotline will get the same $520 million in funding for the 2026 fiscal year as it did for 2025, Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman Rachel Cauley told NBC News. The budget won't "grant taxpayer money to a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by 'counselors' without consent or knowledge of their parents," Cauley said. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline was established in 2005, and President Donald Trump in 2020 signed legislation establishing the specialized service for LGBTQ callers. The specialized service received about 1.3 million calls, texts and online chat messages since 2022, according to SAMHSA. It also received an average of 2,100 contacts every day in February.
USA Today
16 minutes ago
- USA Today
A divided Congress mulls war powers as Trump considers strike in Iran
A divided Congress mulls war powers as Trump considers strike in Iran Authorizing foreign wars is the job of U.S. lawmakers, but recent presidents have stretched their own powers to engage in global conflicts. Show Caption Hide Caption Trump teases possible strike on Iran but says it's not too late for deal "I may do it. I may not do it." President Trump teased a possible strike on Iran but also said it is not too late to negotiate. WASHINGTON – Lawmakers in the House and Senate are divided on how and whether to act on President Donald Trump's suggestion that he may authorize a U.S. strike on Iran amid missile attacks between Iran and Israel. Congress is the only branch of government that has the power to declare war, according to the U.S. Constitution, but presidents have stretched their own powers to engage in foreign conflicts in recent decades because the president can authorize strikes in defensive cases. As Israel and Iran trade blows in an escalating aerial war, Israel is aiming to take out Iran's nuclear facilities with the possibility of the U.S. military's help. Trump said on June 18 his decision is imminent and that he wasn't concerned about upsetting parts of his core MAGA political base that are publicly warning against the United States being entangled in another foreign conflict. Trump first ran for president in 2016 as an ardent critic of the war in Iraq. Once in the White House, he ordered a drone strike on an Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani, without telling Congress. Former President Barack Obama argued George W. Bush-era war authorizations from the early 2000s covered drone strikes in Yemen. And former President Bill Clinton conducted missile strikes in Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998 without explicit Congressional approval. Some lawmakers of both parties say they want a say in whether the U.S. gets involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel, which began on June 13 when Israel struck Iran. Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, D-California, introduced a resolution to block U.S. involvement in the conflict without Congressional approval. "This is not our war," Massie wrote on X. "Even if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution." Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, introduced a similar measure in the Senate. Both the resolutions in the House and Senate are privileged, which means the chambers will be forced to vote on them as soon as next week, Kaine said. "It is not in our national security interest to get into a war with Iran unless that war is absolutely necessary to defend the United States," Kaine said in a statement. "I am deeply concerned that the recent escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could quickly pull the United States into another endless conflict." But support for the resolutions may not fall neatly along party lines. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania, has said he will vote against Kaine's push because he wants to ensure Trump can destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities. And Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, said the Constitution is "pretty clear" that the president can't take the country to war without Congressional approval. "You can't have a president just beginning a war on his own," Paul said. "So if that decision should be made, he should come to Congress and ask for permission." However, many Republicans in the Senate say Trump is well within his rights to move unilaterally for a single strike. "A single bombing run, historically, has not been understood to require congressional authorization," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. "To engage in sustained hostility, to engage in continued warfare, does require congressional coming to the floor.' Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told CBS News on June 15 that "the worst possible outcome" would be the survival of the Iranian nuclear program. Destroying it through diplomacy would be preferred, he said. But "if diplomacy is not successful, and we left with the option of force, I would urge President Trump to go all in to make sure that when this operation is over, there's nothing left standing in Iran regarding their nuclear program," he said. "If that means providing bombs, provide bombs... If it means flying with Israel, fly with Israel." Others are keeping their powder dry until Trump makes his plan clear. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, told reporters on June 17 that Trump is "perfectly within his right to do what he's done so far." Asked whether he would consider allowing a War Powers resolution to come to the floor to authorize force in the case it's needed, Thune said: "We're getting the cart ahead of the horse here." "Clearly if this thing were to extend for some period of time there could be a more fulsome discussion about what the role of Congress should be, and whether or not we need to take action," Thune said. "Right now, let's hope and pray for the best outcome, the best solution. In my view, that would be Iran coming to the negotiating table and agreeing to end their nuclear program."
