"Children Need Teachers": New York City Schools Ban AI Use For Students

09/03/26 2:34 AM

Mayor Zohran Mamdani told reporters on Wednesday that schools would halt the current use of about 40 educational tools in New York City classrooms.

"I'm Happy, I Wasn't A Fan": Trump On Prince Harry, Meghan Leaving US

09/03/26 12:57 AM

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was glad Britain's Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan Markle had left the United States, adding that he was no fan.

"Obligation Of Large Nations": Nepal Seeks Climate Justice After Floods

09/02/26 8:41 PM

Nepal Foreign Minister Shisir Khanal asserted that post-disaster aid should be treated as a matter of "moral liability".

'Interesting sign' emerging as US strikes risk tempting America's enemies to act: analyst

08/30/26 9:47 PM

There's an "interesting sign" emerging after the U.S. conducted a new round of strikes against Iran on Sunday that risks spurring America's enemies to act, according to one analyst. The U.S. launched a series of strikes against two sites on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz where Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members were staging rocket launchers to attack merchant ships, according to reports. The strikes came just days after President Donald Trump called Iran a "failing nation" in a post on Truth Social. David Sanger, a national security correspondent for The New York Times, shared his assessment of the strikes on Sunday's broadcast of "CNN Newsroom.""I think they take it as an interesting sign, Sanger said about how America's enemies such as China and Russia reacted to the new strikes. "I think they both also see that the U.S. is now going to have to tie up considerable forces in the Persian Gulf for the foreseeable future."Sanger also warned that the new strikes could have bitter geopolitical consequences. "That could tempt Vladimir Putin to try to go take a small NATO country, or at least some territory in it," Sanger said. "It could tempt Xi Jinping to go after Taiwan."

'My goodness gracious!' Harry Enten shocked after Trump rebuked in 50-state 'sweeperoo'

08/30/26 11:16 PM

CNN data guru Harry Enten was astounded on Sunday after new data revealed just how little Americans think of President Donald Trump's latest stunt. Last week, Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario Lake America as part of his ongoing trade spat with America's northern neighbor. Enten did a little digging into Google's search data and said during Sunday's broadcast of "CNN Newsroom" that the data painted a revealing picture of how Americans are thinking about the move. "Do Americans agree with him? Are they actually now calling it Lake America?" Enten asked. "Well, the early signs are no, Americans do not, in fact, agree with President Trump.""Since Thursday, I looked at the Google searches in all 50 states," he continued. "And guess what? In every single one of them, all 50 [states], a 50-state sweeperoo (sic), more Americans are searching for Lake Ontario." Enten also noted that Americans have largely sided with Canada in the wake of Trump's move, as Canada's favorability rating remains well ahead of the president's. "It's a completely different ballgame," Enten said about Trump's favorability rating compared to Canada's. "My goodness gracious! Americans far more like Canada, dare I say love Canada, than ... [they] despise the way that President Trump is dealing with Canada."

'Natalie got confused': Trump aide hit as admin official denies Truth Social AI slop

08/31/26 1:53 PM

President Donald Trump's executive assistant Natalie Harp faced criticism over a Truth Social post claiming a critical Iranian oil island was being destroyed, which a U.S. official said was not targeted.A U.S. official said the overnight strikes did not target Kharg Island, Reuters correspondent Idrees Ali reported Monday morning. A post claiming the Island had been blown to "smithereens" went up on Trump's Truth Social account at 10:08 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, hours after American forces struck Iran.A 10-second video of a burning refinery complex paired with the post included the caption, "Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!"Phillips P. O'Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, aimed his response at Harp rather than at the president."Poor Natalie got confused between Kharg Island and Larak Island--worshipping can be such exhausting business," O'Brien wrote on X Monday morning.Harp has been reported for months to be the aide who physically publishes material to the president's account. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Harp supplies Trump with stacks of printed drafts and waits for his approval before posting, often during overnight hours.The 34-year-old is a former conservative television anchor who joined Trump's circle ahead of the 2024 election. Colleagues have nicknamed her the "human printer" for the portable printer she carries, the Journal reported.Harp "plays into the less productive and more troublesome parts of his nature, putting things in front of him that aren't vetted," one of those four people told MS NOW.One national security official raised concerns that Harp's proximity to Trump gave her access to more sensitive information than anyone else in his orbit, MS NOW reported. Colleagues had made "subtle moves" to create distance between Harp and the president, another of the four people told the outlet.The criticism resumed Monday morning, hours after the post appeared, as commentators connected it to that earlier reporting."Trump is winning the Iran War in the AI world Natalie Harp has created for him," MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski wrote on X.Marcy Wheeler, a national security journalist, tied the post directly to the question of who is running the war."How does the Commander in Chief post AI slop claiming to have 'blown to smithereens' a sensitive island when that's not what was struck at all?" Wheeler wrote. "What OTHER key actions in this war is he entirely confused about? Is the Commander in Chief even in charge? If not, who is?"American forces did strike an Iranian island on Sunday, but it was not the one named in the post.U.S. Central Command announced strikes on two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island, a U.S. official said, marking the first American strikes on Iran in more than a month.Analysts have long treated a strike on Kharg's oil facilities as a far greater escalation than one on a launcher site, AP reported, because it would cut off the revenue that funds the Iranian government.Harp's role became a public argument two weeks ago, when a single line from a Democratic senator drew a sustained response from the White House.Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) named Harp during a rally in Atlanta on Aug. 16, in a passage otherwise devoted to the president's priorities."He doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace, gifted by the Emir of Qatar," Ossoff said, according to Forbes.Outrage from the White House reached a fever pitch for more than a week, involving the president, his spokespeople, and his family. Trump called Ossoff a "Pee-wee Herman look-alike" when a reporter asked about the remark and did not address Harp directly, Forbes reported. The White House then attacked the reporter who asked the question, CNN's Kristen Holmes.White House spokesperson Davis Ingle called Ossoff's comments "cringeworthy" and criticized the senator's voting record, he told TIME."It's been amazing to watch this White House melt down over this all week," Ossoff later told MS NOW.The response generated weeks of coverage examining Harp's access that the original remark had not. Posts from Trump's account have been deleted before after drawing complaints, including two involving artificial intelligence.Harp posted a video containing racist imagery depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, along with an AI-generated image portraying Trump as a Christ-like figure, MS NOW reported.Both posts were deleted following bipartisan backlash, and Trump told reporters on Feb. 6 that he did not post the Obama video, saying "somebody else" did and that it was "slipped and missed" during review.Twelve days later, press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump's posts "should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration" because they came "straight from the horse's mouth," The Independent reported."When you see it on Truth Social, you know it's directly from President Trump," Leavitt said at the Feb. 18 briefing.

'Pathway to the bomb': Analyst flags glaring problem buried in Trump's new nuclear move

09/02/26 8:39 PM

Trump's new nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia could make ending his war with Iran even harder, foreign policy analyst Trita Parsi warned Wednesday, because it opens the door for Tehran's regional rival to enrich uranium, the very capability U.S. bombs are meant to strip from Iran.The 30-year agreement, sent to Congress for review, would hand U.S. firms the lead role in building the kingdom's civilian nuclear program and, after a two-year study, could permit enrichment at a plant on Saudi soil operated by the United States. Critics note it does not require Riyadh to accept the Additional Protocol, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's most intrusive inspection regime. Enrichment is dual use: the same process that fuels a power reactor can, pushed further, yield the core of a bomb.Critics have seized on the contradiction that Washington is at war to force zero enrichment on Iran, which insists its program is peaceful, while smoothing the path for the Saudis. Parsi delivered a blunt takedown."Washington is providing Riyadh a pathway to the bomb," even as it demands Iran give up enrichment entirely. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the administration's "hypocrisy is matched only by their recklessness," accusing it of letting Saudi Arabia pursue nuclear weapons technology "under the guise of preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb." Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) warned the deal would "set off a nuclear race in the region."The move also cuts against decades of policy aimed at denying Iran the very technology now on offer to Riyadh. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as a senator, even co-sponsored a 2019 bill that would have required Saudi Arabia to forgo enrichment.Trump has insisted the alarm is overblown, shouting on Truth Social, "There will be no enrichment of material!" He added that the pact hinges on Riyadh normalizing ties with Israel through the Abraham Accords. Rubio, for his part, has insisted the deal has "safeguards in place."The clash comes as the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, launched in late February, grinds on. Parsi and other analysts say the double standard hands Tehran a fresh grievance and a reason to walk away from talks, raising the odds the fighting drags on. Blocking the Saudi deal, meanwhile, would take a two-thirds vote in both chambers, a bar even critics concede is steep.

'Stop trying to be tough': Carney fires back at Trump as US-Canada trade fight escalates

09/01/26 6:48 PM

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says the Trump administration needs to “stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough.”

'Vindictive' DOJ cases in peril as lawyers say Trump 'caused terror, violence and murder'

09/02/26 4:05 PM

The Justice Department's first-ever prosecution of protesters of the Trump administration under a church-protection law now faces dismissal, with defendants arguing President Donald Trump ordered it out of spite.Most of the more than 30 people charged over a January ICE protest inside a St. Paul church asked a federal judge on Aug. 31 to throw out the case, according to a joint motion filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.A large slate of lawyers argued the government charged their clients as political payback at the behest of the president as part of a selective and vindictive prosecution, the motion states.The defendants were reacting to Trump's directives, which "caused terror, violence, and murder in Minnesota" when they entered Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18, prompted by the knowledge that its pastor David Easterwood also worked for the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office, their attorneys argued. Federal charges followed within days. Federal agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist, on Jan. 22, and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrest on social media, claiming that NAACP leader Levy Armstrong "allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church." A grand jury indicted nine defendants a week later, and a superseding indictment in February added 30 more people.Days earlier, Renee Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.The Trump administration's crackdown on protesters continued following the church arrests. Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse at the VA hospital, was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer on Jan. 24 while protesting peacefully in Minneapolis, the motion says. The shootings occurred during Operation Metro Surge, which sent as many as 2,000 federal agents and officers into the Minneapolis area for what the motion describes as one of the largest single-city Homeland Security mobilizations in years.Those arrested at the Minnesota church, including Armstrong and others, pleaded not guilty in February to conspiracy against rights."They have altered the facts, just as they altered my image as a way of trying to criminalize nonviolent, peaceful protests and lawful dissent against their unlawful and unjust actions," Armstrong told Democracy Now!, referring to an administration photo that appeared digitally altered to show her crying.The activist's protests were based on the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a law Congress passed to stop violence against abortion providers. The law covers places of worship. No one had ever been criminally charged under the law's place-of-worship provision in its 30-year history, according to the motion.The vindictive prosecution motion notes that the charges are "unequal, oppressive" and have "a clear and dangerous chilling effect on the Defendants and anyone else who wants to voice their opposition to U.S. Government policies"The motion argues that the Justice Department brought the case "at the direction and behest of President Donald J. Trump" and to fulfill a "mission to satisfy the personal animosities of its chief client, Donald Trump." "Sadly, this is not at all hyperbole, but the cold hard facts behind this prosecution," the motion says of the department's approach.While these defendants face felonies, people convicted of blocking abortion clinics went free. Trump pardoned 24 people convicted of FACE Act violations within days of taking office in 2025, some of whom had been convicted in multiple jurisdictions, according to the motion.One pardoned defendant had live-streamed her intent to "terrorize this place" the day before she barricaded a Manhattan clinic door, crushing a worker's hand with such force that three people were needed to pry the door open, the motion says."The record shows that individuals who engaged in the same or much more serious and violent conduct, whether at a progressive liberal church or an abortion clinic, were treated differently," the motion says.Anti-abortion activist Mark Houck was charged with shoving an elderly clinic escort to the ground twice and was acquitted at trial, the motion says. He then sued the government, and a district judge dismissed every claim as not plausible.The administration reportedly agreed to pay Houck more than $1 million to settle the case on appeal without ever filing a brief in defense of the government, according to the motion."Not only were such similarly situated individuals not prosecuted, they were in many instances rewarded with large monetary payouts from the Justice Department," the motion says.Two other church disruptions drew no federal charges at all, the motion says. Protesters in Orlando, Florida, rose during a children's sermon at an LGBTQ-affirming church in March 2025 and shouted "Synagogue of Sin!" at the congregation, according to the motion.Republican congressional candidate Valentina Gomez stood up during a service at a Texas church in November 2025 and said that "homosexuality is a sin and whoever supports that is worthy of death," the motion says.Neither incident produced a federal investigation or a FACE Act charge, according to the filing.The dismissal motion is not the only trouble facing prosecutors. U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko ordered the Justice Department in July to hand over grand jury testimony and evidence so he could determine whether the government misled jurors while seeking the indictment.Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort filed their own motions to dismiss in August, with Fort arguing that she was covering the protest as a reporter."The invasion of Cities Church was a planned, coordinated effort to disrupt a worship service and interfere with religious exercise that placed congregants, including children, in fear for their lives," Doug Wardlow, litigation director at True North Legal, said in February on behalf of the church.Defendants asked the court to dismiss the case outright, or to grant them access to internal Justice Department communications and hold a hearing where they could present evidence, according to the motion.

'You Will Fail To Escape Depths Of Hell': Iran Warns US Of New Strategy In War

09/03/26 12:04 AM

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Washington has launched a fresh wave of "large and powerful" strikes against Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz.