The Labour prime minister makes his first speech in Downing Street.
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Sunday, July 7, 2024
Saturday, July 6, 2024
Space force commander who says he lost pension for criticizing DEI in military opens up on being 'betrayed'
A former space commander is calling for a change of leadership after he was fired for allegedly criticizing the "Marxist" DEI complex, which he believes is now being accelerated under the Biden administration.
Former Lt. Col. Matt Lohmeier was in the military for over a decade before he joined the U.S. Space Force in 2020, where he specialized in missile warning systems. But less than a year later, in May 2021, he was "betrayed," he told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Lohmeier publicly spoke out against DEI training because he believed it was dividing the troops and decreasing morale, which affected military readiness. He believes "the DEI industry… is steeped in critical race theory, is rooted in anti-American, Marxist ideology."
"The blow was severe," Lohmeier said about allegedly being fired for his dissenting views. "It makes you feel like you've been betrayed."
He said it was a real "gut punch" when he lost his pension.
"You give your life and service to your country and the American people, and you're not doing it for the pay. You're doing it because you become [convinced] of the greatness of the American ideal. And… senior leaders [then] say, ‘We want you out of the way because your view is not welcome here,’ even as they pretend to care about inclusivity, even as they pretend to care about diversity, [but] not diversity of thought," he said.
Lohmeier believed he didn't violate existing policy because the issue he took aim at was anti-Americanism, not politics.
"There was a whole string of events that did lead up to my being relieved of command," he said. "The ultimate reason was because I was willing to be publicly critical of critical race theory, which I understood to be rooted in Marxist ideology… that I saw dividing the troops."
"I wasn't advocating for Republicans over Democrats, and I'm conservative myself. But it didn't matter to me. And it's never mattered to our troops what someone else's politics were," Lohmeier said.
The former commander is now trying to expose what he calls the "Marxist" military complex from the outside.
A new study commissioned by the Arizona State University Center for American Institutions revealed that the Pentagon’s DEI programs encourage reporting private conversations on dissenting views of DEI and has been steadily increasing its resources. DEI engines in the military cost taxpayers $68 million in 2022 and $86.5 million in 2023, with a proposed $114.7 million for 2024, according to the ASU report.
The report, compiled by military experts, recommends abolishing the left-wing DEI agenda and replacing it with merit-based selections and American values curricula at the academies.
"We need to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion trainings from the military, from the service academies, and strip all vestiges of critical race theory out of the military workplace," Lohmeier said.
The Space Force did not respond to a request for comment.
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Raducanu dismantles Sakkari to reach Wimbledon last 16
Emma Raducanu makes a strong statement of intent by beating Greek ninth seed Maria Sakkari to reach the Wimbledon fourth round.
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Friday, July 5, 2024
Yankees, Reds players engage in national anthem standoff before Fourth of July game
New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds players engaged in a good ‘ol fashioned national anthem standoff before their game on the Fourth of July on Thursday afternoon.
Four players in total were involved in the standoff, and then it came down to two Yankees players, Ian Hamilton and Cody Poteet, and one Reds player, Graham Ashcraft. Carson Spears, Ashcraft’s teammate, went back into the dugout.
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All players were standing outside of their dugouts with their caps over their hearts. But New York’s struggles trying to win anything as of late carried over into the little fun and games the players had.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone then made the determination that enough was enough, and Hamilton and Poteet were sent back to the dugout. An elated Ashcraft went back to the visitors’ dugout to cheers and applause from his teammates.
SHOHEI OHTANI'S 112 MPH HOME RUN HITS YOUNG FAN IN HEAD AT DODGER STADIUM
Cincinnati entered the game looking for a sweep of the Yankees. New York have lost seven out of their last nine games going back to June 23rd’s loss to the Atlanta Braves.
Luckily, the team has played well enough to earn 54 wins so far this year, but if there’s any team that is in need of the All-Star break right now, it’s New York.
The Reds jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the holiday matinée.
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How to follow the election on the BBC
Online, on TV, and on Sounds and Radio - the BBC is bringing you full coverage of the 2024 UK general election and its results.
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Thursday, July 4, 2024
Tammy Baldwin will stick to state tour instead of joining Biden during Wisconsin visit
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., who is facing a competitive challenge in November, won't be joining President Biden during his campaign stop in Wisconsin Friday.
The Biden campaign announced an appearance in Madison, Wisconsin, earlier this week, which will be the president's first visit to the battleground state since his poor debate performance against former President Trump last month.
According to her campaign spokesperson, Baldwin won't be joining Biden in Madison. Instead, the senator will be on a state tour that will take her to several Wisconsin counties, including Ashland, Oneida, Marinette, Brown, Door, Fond du Lac, Ozaukee and Dane.
PRESSURE MOUNTS ON BATTLEGROUND STATE DEMS AFTER BIDEN DEBATE DISASTER
"I’m so excited to kick off my Fired Up for Tammy tour," Baldwin said in an announcement Tuesday about her campaign tour. "In the theme of our nation’s Independence Day, I’ll be meeting with voters from all over the state to talk about the ways we’re working to defend our freedoms and find solutions to the kitchen table issues that matter most to Wisconsin families."
Baldwin's spokesperson said the tour had been planned for weeks and was announced prior to the news of Biden's visit.
GOP SENATE CANDIDATE TIES OPPONENT TO BIDEN DEBATE: BOB CASEY KNEW
Quentin Fulks, Biden campaign principal deputy campaign manager, pushed back on speculation Biden may drop out of the presidential race Wednesday, touting his upcoming visit to Wisconsin, a pivotal swing state.
"Obviously, there were 90 minutes of a poor debate performance, but that does not define the record of accomplishments," Fulks said on CNN. "It does not define the vision that President Biden has and these interviews and these things that the president is doing — our campaign stop in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday.
CONGRESSIONAL DEMS BLAST RULING ON TRUMP IMMUNITY: 'EXTREME RIGHT-WING SUPREME COURT'
"We want everything to go well from the campaign's perspective all the time. But if they don't, I do not think that that has a bearing on whether somebody is going to continue running for president of the United States," he added.
After Biden's debate performance, Baldwin reiterated to local Wisconsin outlets that she "supports the president."
TRUMP ALLIES CELEBRATE BLOW TO 'SENSELESS LAWFARE' IN SUPREME COURT IMMUNITY DECISION
However, her campaign said, "Tammy Baldwin is running her own race for the people of Wisconsin," according to The Capital Times.
The Wisconsin Senate race is rated "Lean Democratic" by non-partisan political handicapper the Cook Political Report, making it one of the seven most competitive Senate matches this cycle.
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Top White House aide urges staff to tune out ‘noise' and focus on governing during debate fallout
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients reportedly held an all-staff meeting Wednesday to urge team members to tune out the "noise" and focus on the task of governing, as senior aides scramble to contain the political fallout from President Biden’s disastrous debate performance.
Even as Zients acknowledged that the days since the Atlanta matchup between Biden and former President Trump have been challenging, the chief of staff stressed to White House aides the accomplishments and the track record of the Democratic administration and said governing will only become more crucial once the campaign season heats up, particularly after the Fourth of July holiday, The Associated Press reported, citing a White House official.
Biden himself began making personal outreach on his own, speaking privately with senior Democratic lawmakers such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons and South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, a second White House official and others with knowledge of the conversations told the AP.
TOP DEMOCRATS RAGE OVER BIDEN'S DEBATE DEFLECTION: 'DON'T KNOW WHO'S MAKING DECISIONS'
On Capitol Hill, there is increasing anxiety as Biden has been slow to reach out to top Democrats and rank-and-file members, the AP reported, citing people familiar with ongoing conversations.
Top Democratic lawmakers also voiced their outrage to Axios about Biden dragging his feet in reaching out to the party's leadership in recent days, much less the rank-and-file facing competitive races this year. The members, who were not named in the Axios reporting, took particular issue with Biden's deflection, saying that his handling of the debate fallout, rather than the debate performance itself, could cost Democrats chances of flipping the House or maintaining their majority in the Senate in November.
Democrats are unsatisfied with the explanations of Biden’s debate performance from both White House staff and Biden himself. And there is a deeper frustration among some Democrats who feel Biden should have handled this much sooner and has put them in a difficult position by staying in the race.
Zients tried to rally the staff’s confidence in Biden’s re-election apparatus, noting that the president has a "strong campaign team" in place and that the White House’s job was to focus on continuing to implement Biden’s agenda. He also told staff that Biden has always made it through tough times, despite being counted out during his decades in public office.
The chief of staff also encouraged aides to "continue being a team" and, while acknowledging the increasing political chatter, to "tune it out" and stay disciplined, according to the official who spoke to the AP. The official was granted anonymity to relay Zients’ private remarks. Zients also urged White House staff to ask questions and offer feedback.
Staff-wide White House calls aren’t unusual, but Wednesday's 15-minute check-in came as Biden and senior White House officials were working to assuage rattled lawmakers, donors and other allies within the party amid sharpening questions about whether the 81-year-old president had the competency to run for a second term in office.
BIDEN CAMPAIGN SENDS ALL-STAFF MEMO HOPING TO CALM POST-DEBATE CONCERNS
According to Axios, major Democratic donors are now planning to move large contributions to House and Senate candidates before what they see as a likely second term for Trump.
Biden’s re-election campaign planned a staff-wide call of its own and says it will "be using emails and all staff calls more frequently to make sure you all have the latest updates and broader campaign priorities for the day," according to a memo sent Wednesday by campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez. The memo insists the election between Biden and Trump will still be close, seeking to downplay the lasting effects of the debate.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also scheduled to hold one of their sporadic lunches on Wednesday, and the president was planning on hosting an assortment of Democratic governors at the White House in the evening.
Among the Democratic governors who were planning to attend in person were Tim Walz of Minnesota, who leads the Democratic Governors Association, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Daniel McKee of Rhode Island, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gavin Newsom of California, according to their aides. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy were planning on attending virtually.
The White House has also been on the defensive against reporting that suggests that Biden was considering dropping out of the race.
Andrew Bates, White House senior deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to the president, shot back in a response on X to the New York Times’ report Wednesday that Biden told an ally that he was weighing whether to continue his re-election prospects following the disastrous debate performance. "That claim is absolutely false," Bates wrote.
Biden also agreed to an interview Friday with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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US Olympic surfer Griffin Colapinto tackling mental health in his community through Athletes for Good grant
Team USA surfer Griffin Colapinto is looking forward to his next event this year, his first-ever Olympic Games, but he’s also excited about how he’s impacting his community as an Olympian.
Colapinto was one of 20 Olympic and Paralympic athletes awarded a $24,000 grant from Athletes for Good, a joint initiative between Proctor & Gamble, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), that recognizes the efforts of these athletes to improve their communities.
Colapinto knew the grant would go to the nonprofit To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), which is dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with mental health, addiction and more.
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"It’s incredible. Super fortunate," Colapinto told Fox News Digital. "I think my mom put an email together, because you have to apply for the grant, and she put it down. Sent it in, not thinking much of it, and they ended up picking us, which is incredible.
"To Write Love on Her Arms is a nonprofit organization that we are representing and giving our energy to. They’re pretty much about giving tools and supporting anyone that’s going through a hard time in life. Mental health seems to be a big topic these days with social media, and I feel like people have gotten disconnected from the source of where we came from. It's good to talk about that stuff, be open, and there’s counseling you can get on To Write Love on Her Arms if you don’t have the money to talk to anyone, or maybe there’s no one in your life that you feel you can talk to. You can go there and open up."
Colapinto, along with his brother, Crosby, explained how their own mental health journey through their professional surfing careers led to their connection with TWLOHA. The "Cola Bros," as they’re affectionately known, use journaling as a technique to help clear their minds before and after events, and they started to sell these journals to fans wanting to go through their practice as well.
Profits from those journal sales were donated to TWLOHA.
"I started getting real interested in mental health through surfing, obviously, and being a pro surfer," Colapinto explained. "Just chasing a dream, chasing something that’s so challenging, you’re going to be dealt with hard moments throughout the journey. Through that, I started journaling, meditating and reading books. I ended up kinda just creating my own little system of tools to help me on my journey, and the journaling was a really cool one.
"We were like, ‘Yeah, OK, it would be really cool if we could do something with the money that’s made from these.’ We decided to go with To Write Love on Her Arms and give the profits to the organization. From there, we started to learn more about it and what they’re doing. We’ve just got super psyched on it, and now we got a grant. So, it’s on!"
Colapinto also discussed "Between the Bells," a one-week interactive program that’s free for students through TWLOHA to help them spark authentic conversations about mental health. He was able to speak with kids during an installment of the program, and loved what he saw.
"Super rad," he said smiling. "Each kid had a pamphlet, and on the pamphlet there’s all these different categories of questions to ask yourself, like how you’re feeling. Little things in your life like, ‘Did you brush your teeth this morning? Did you make your bed?’ All these little things you ask yourself that kinda contribute to having a good, clear mind every day.
"Those simple little tools, those simple steps, if you don’t have the parents that taught you those, then it's organizations like this that are there to take care of that for you."
Whether you’re a professional athlete or not, mental health is paramount. For Colapinto, he says "the freer you are thought wise, the better you surf." And while that will always be a challenge for him, especially with the Olympics’ pressure coming up next month, his methods of creating a clear mind are always helpful before he gets out on the waves.
And those tools are what he wants everyone, especially the next generation, to have.
"I think one of the biggest things for freeing your mind is recognizing whatever thought it is that is challenging you," he said. "Sometimes you get a thought or emotion that just keeps looping in your head and body. Through journaling, or through talking to someone like a counselor, you can get yourself to recognize that, and that’s half the battle. Once you see it, it’s easier to let it go. Then, boom, you’re free."
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Man jailed over 39 lorry deaths to be deported
A total of 11 people have been convicted in the UK over the lorry deaths discovered in Essex.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2024
CNN data analyst gives blunt warning to Biden after poor polling: 'I don't know how he wins'
New polling showing a sharp drop in voters' confidence in President Biden's fitness for office stunned one data analyst on Monday.
"If you look at the polling now compared to what it was pre-debate and compare it to what it was four years ago, it‘s just not even on the same planet," CNN reporter Harry Enten reacted on the network.
Biden faces an uphill battle to regain voters' confidence after last Thursday's shaky debate performance, as a new poll from CBS News shows a large majority of voters now doubt his mental fitness to be president.
According to that poll, 72% of voters think Biden is mentally unfit to serve. But four years ago, just 36% of voters thought Biden was too old to be president, Enten said.
"Four years ago, voters for the most part thought Joe Biden was with it. He could handle the job as president. You look at those numbers now, the fact is, voters do not even see them on the same planet. They don‘t think Biden‘s with it. They do not believe he has the mental fitness to be president," he said.
"And I have to be honest with you, I don‘t know how he wins with the numbers that we see right now. There is no precedent for the numbers that we‘re seeing right now for someone running for president, letting alone getting a nomination," Enten continued.
If Biden does not do more to turn this trend around, it could "end" his campaign, the reporter predicted.
According to recent reports, the Biden campaign has been flooded with calls from donors who have concerns about Biden's chances at winning the election against his GOP rival, former President Trump, after last Thursday's debate.
Democratic allies of the president and many of his staunchest supporters in the liberal media have even pressured the president to step down, citing cognitive decline during the debate.
"Biden is not the man he was four years ago," The New York Times editorial board wrote on Friday. "The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence."
However, the Biden campaign has argued that Biden's support from his base has stayed virtually the same since before the debate.
"Flash polls from CNN, 538, SurveyUSA, Morning Consult, and Data for Progress show what we expected: The debate did not change the horse race," Campaign Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a memo over the weekend. "This mirrors what the campaign’s internal post-debate polling showed: The president maintained his support among his 2020 voters and voters' opinions were not changed."
Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this article.
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Hungary's Viktor Orban urges ceasefire on Kyiv visit
He is a critic of Western support for Ukraine and is seen as the European leader closest to Russia's Vladimir Putin.
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Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Family dies in New York plane crash following Cooperstown baseball tournament: police
A family of five from Georgia has died in a small plane crash in upstate New York after leaving a baseball tournament in Cooperstown, police say.
The victims, identified as Harrison VanEpps, 10, James VanEpps, 12, Ryan VanEpps, 42, Laura VanEpps, 43 and Roger Beggs, 76, were killed Sunday afternoon in the accident near Lake Cecil Road in the town of Masonville, according to New York State Police.
"All of the passengers are family members from the state of Georgia and were in Cooperstown, NY for a baseball tournament," police said.
"The plane departed from Alfred S. Nader Regional Airport in Oneonta, NY and was traveling to West Virginia to refuel with its ultimate destination as Cobb County International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia," State Police added.
SMALL PLANE CARRYING 5 PEOPLE CRASHES IN NEW YORK, OFFICIALS SAY
Cooperstown is the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday called the incident "tragic," and asked the public to join him and his family "in praying for the loved ones of the Beggs and VanEpps families," WSB-TV reported.
"We offer our deepest condolences to all who knew and loved them," the governor reportedly added.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the crash along with the National Transportation Safety Board, told Fox News Digital that the plane involved in the crash was a single-engine Piper PA-46.
All those on board the plane died, the FAA added.
MULTIPLE PEOPLE DEAD AFTER CAR CRASHES INTO NEW YORK NAIL SALON
An NTSB spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the agency is looking for witness reports as they "will be very helpful to the investigation."
"A multi-agency effort search of the area, with the utilization of drones, ATV’s and helicopters led to the discovery of debris and ultimately to the downed aircraft," New York State Police said.
New York State Police added that its "Bureau of Criminal of Investigation, Collision Reconstruction Unit, and Forensic Identification Unit are working in conjunction with the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Board to determine the cause of the crash."
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Man used 'slapping therapy as diabetes cure', court hears
Hongchi Xiao was charged with manslaughter by gross negligence late last year.
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Monday, July 1, 2024
More wounded Palestinians tell BBC the Israeli army forced them on to jeep
Two more Palestinian men tell the BBC they were shot and forced on to the bonnet of an Israeli jeep.
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Banksy posts clip of raft stunt at Glastonbury
The artist used an unsuspecting band at Glastonbury Festival to launch his latest performance.
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