WAR ON D.E.I.

Trump administration cuts grants for minority-serving colleges, declaring them unconstitutional

COLLIN BINKLEY
Wed, September 10, 2025 



FILE - Pedestrians cross University Ave on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., July 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is ending several grant programs reserved for colleges that have large numbers of minority students, saying they amount to illegal discrimination by tying federal money to racial quotas.

In a shift upending decades of precedent, the Education Department said Wednesday it now believes it’s unconstitutional to award federal grants using eligibility requirements based on racial or ethnic enrollment levels. The agency said it’s holding back a total of $350 million in grants budgeted for this year and called on Congress to “reenvision” the programs for future years.

More than $250 million of that figure was budgeted for the government's Hispanic-Serving Institution program, which offers grants to colleges and universities where at least a quarter of undergraduates are Hispanic. Congress created the program in 1998 after finding that Latino students were going to college and graduating at far lower rates than white students.

Several smaller programs are also being cut, including $22 million for schools where at least 40% of students are Black, along with programs reserved for schools with certain enrollment levels of Asian American, Pacific Islander or Native American students. The programs have traditionally received bipartisan support in Congress and were created to address longstanding racial disparities in education.

Not included in the cuts is federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, which are open to all students regardless of race.

“Diversity is not merely the presence of a skin color,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement Wednesday. “Stereotyping an individual based on immutable characteristics diminishes the full picture of that person’s life and contributions, including their character, resiliency, and merit.”

McMahon added that she aims to work with Congress to repurpose the funding for institutions that serve “underprepared or under-resourced” students without using quotas. She did not elaborate on plans to repurpose the $350 million.

The government’s gnts for Hispanic-Serving Institutions are being challenged in a federal lawsuit brought by the state of Tennessee and the anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions. Tennessee argues that all of its public universities serve Hispanic students, but none meet the “arbitrary ethnic threshold” to be eligible for the grants.

The Justice Department declined to defend the grants in the lawsuit, saying in a July memo that the 25% enrollment requirement violates the Constitution.

In court filings, a national association of Hispanic-Serving Institutions said the grants are legal and help put its members on an even playing field.

More than 500 colleges and universities are designated as Hispanic-Serving Institutions, making them eligible for the grants. It includes flagship campuses like the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Arizona, along with many community colleges and smaller institutions.

The new cuts drew backlash from Democrats in Congress.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Trump is “putting politics ahead of students simply looking to get ahead.” She drew attention to the government's current funding bill, a stopgap measure passed in March that gives the administration more flexibility to redirect federal funding.

“This is another important reminder of why Congress needs to pass funding bills, like the one the Senate marked up this summer, that ensure Congress — not Donald Trump or Linda McMahon — decides how limited taxpayer dollars are spent,” Murray said in a statement.

The Education Department said it will still release about $132 million for similar grant programs that are considered mandatory, meaning their levels are dictated by existing laws. Even so, the department said it “continues to consider the underlying legal issues associated with the mandatory funding mechanism in these programs.”

Former President Joe Biden made Hispanic universities a priority, signing an executive action last year that promised a new presidential advisory board and increased funding. President Donald Trump revoked the order on his first day back in office earlier this year.

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Exclusive: Trump Admin Ends $350M Grants for ‘Hispanic-Serving Institutions'

Philip Wegmann
Wed, September 10, 2025 

AP

The Trump administration will cut a federal program that provides funding to colleges and universities with large Hispanic student populations, as well as numerous other discretionary grants designed to support minority serving institutions of higher education, RealClearPolitics is first to report.

It is the result of recent legal wrangling and the latest in Trumps ongoing crusade to overhaul academia.

The Department of Justice previously declined to defend the Hispanic-Serving Institutions program against a legal challenge brought by Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions. The longstanding federal initiative, HSI, has made additional grants available to colleges where more than 25% of the student body is Hispanic. But in a July letter to Congress, the DOJ deemed that effort a discriminatory and unconstitutional violation of the Fifth Amendments Due Process Clause.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon agrees with that assessment, and now the Department of Education intends to broaden the aperture by ending HSI funding, as well as at least half a dozen major education grants that determine eligibility by race.

"To further our commitment to ending discrimination in all forms across federally supported programs, the department will no longer award Minority-Serving Institution grants that illegally restrict eligibility to institutions that meet government-mandated racial quotas," McMahon said in a statement.

Added the education secretary: "The Department looks forward to working with Congress to reenvision these programs to support institutions that serve underprepared or under-resourced students without relying on race quotas and will continue fighting to ensure that students are judged as individuals, not prejudged by their membership of a racial group."

A senior administration official, who declined to speak on the record, clarified that the change would not affect historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which do not rely on racial quotas as part of admissions.

The Education Department has already singled out seven major federal grant programs intended to help minority students at Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Asian American, and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions.

The administration believes programs that restricted eligibility on racial lines violated the Constitution and served as a vehicle for advancing so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The administration expects $350 million in annual savings from the cuts. The monies are expected to be reallocated toward other programs that align with "administration priorities."

But there is only so much that the administration can do on its own. Congress passed, and then President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, signed into law legislation that created the assistance program for HSIs. They simultaneously set aside other grants for other minority serving institutions. As a result, the Education Department can reprogram discretionary funds, but McMahons hands are tied with respect to certain mandatory spending.

All the same, this kind of budgetary overhaul would have been politically unthinkable to most Republicans pre-Trump. It would have been impossible prior to a landmark 2023 ruling by the Supreme Court that found race considerations in university admissions unconstitutional. A sea-change moment, the ruling bowled over affirmative action programs that had been a pillar of higher education.

The move by McMahon to end the minority students grants is a direct downstream result of the court case. The DOJ specifically cited the Supreme Court case, Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, in its letter to Speaker Johnson announcing its decision not to defend the Hispanic college program.

"For too long," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in that decision, universities "have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individuals identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice."

This has given the Trump administration a free hand in efforts to uproot affirmative action from the academy.

When Tennessee and Students for Fair Admissions filed suit to challenge the HSI program earlier this year, Francisca Fajana, Director of Racial Justice Strategy at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, condemned the lawsuit as "a direct attempt to erase programs that remedy racial and ethnic disparities and strip away essential resources from institutions that serve Latino students."

At the time, Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, countered that "no student or institution should be denied opportunity because they fall on the wrong side of an ethnic quota."

A presidential jet and a massive US airbase didn’t shield Qatar from Israel’s attack.

 America’s Arab allies are taking note

Analysis by Paula Hancocks, CNN
Wed, September 10, 2025 

Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, pictured on Wednesday, condemned Israel's "criminal" attack on the capital Doha. - Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images

Qatar would have been forgiven for thinking it was immune from Israeli attack.

The tiny Gulf state is a key US ally that welcomed President Donald Trump just four months ago; red carpets were laid, billion-dollar deals were done and a controversial presidential aircraft bequeathed.

As for its role as mediator to end the war in Gaza, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani personally met with Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya on Monday to push for the new US-led ceasefire and hostage deal. Hamas’ response was expected at a follow-up meeting Tuesday evening; a couple of hours before that answer, Israeli jets struck a residential building in Doha, killing five Hamas members and a Qatari security official.

The sense of shock and betrayal is palpable in the Qatari capital. The vocabulary being used by Qatar’s prime minister is strong, evocative and damning, a departure from his usual composed response to the incessant twists and turns of trying to end the 23-month war in Gaza.

In an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson Wednesday, he described the attack as “state terror” and warned the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had “killed any hope” for the hostages and undermined “any chance of peace.” He also said the Israeli leader must be “brought to justice,” accusing him of breaking “every international law.”

A country with no diplomatic ties to Israel invited its delegations to come and negotiate indirectly with Hamas; an endeavor appreciated by President Trump, who spoke of Doha “bravely taking risks with us to broker peace.”

Qatar is also considered to have taken a hit on America’s behalf when Iran struck the Al Udeid military base in June of this year, the largest US military facility in the region. Tehran said it was in response to US strikes on its nuclear facilities. Doha issued strong condemnation but little more.
Questioning the pivot to America

The message taken from this strike does not end at Qatar’s borders. Nations across the Gulf, who for decades have actively pivoted toward the US, politically and financially, may now be questioning the assumed benefits of that choice.

US security guarantees were implicit in deals done and memoranda signed. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE pledged an eye-watering $3 trillion in deals during Trump’s May visit, their side of the deal upheld.

US President Donald Trump, shown in Doha, Qatar, on May 14, was "very unhappy" with Israel's strikes against the Gulf state, which has been a key player in negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza. - Brian Snyder/ReutersMore

“I think those nations will be wondering what they can do in order to deter future attacks,” said HA Hellyer, scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, “but also, what sort of security architecture they need to now invest in instead of relying on a partner that hasn’t been able to protect them even from one of its own allies.”

The damage to the trust between the US and its Gulf partners has been done, though to what extent is not yet clear and rests largely on President Trump’s reassurances to his allies and public messaging to Israel. A wider question should be what kind of discouraging effect this will have on future mediation efforts.

While Qatar has not closed the door on mediating peace in Gaza, the talks are at best in limbo, at worst lying in the embers of Israel’s most recent assassination attempt.

Hasan Alhasan, Senior Fellow of Middle East Policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said, “This is the kind of risk not many countries in the region will be willing to stomach in return for a mediating role.”

Qatar and Egypt have long been mediators between Israel and Hamas. Oman has facilitated talks between Iran and the US and more successfully between the US and the Houthis. The UAE has facilitated prisoner swaps between Russia and Ukraine. Saudi Arabia is positioning itself as a venue for peace talks on several different conflicts.

The leaders of every one of those countries will be watching President Trump’s response closely in the face of what appears to be US impotence in the Middle East. And a belief long voiced by many in the region of Israel’s intention to sabotage peace talks has only been fortified by Tuesday’s strikes.

‘Gulf region at risk’: Qatar seeks ‘collective response’ to Israeli attack

Al Jazeera
Wed, September 10, 2025

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Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has said that there must be a “collective response” to Israel’s attack on the Qatari capital Doha, as Arab leaders rushed to the Gulf nation to express solidarity.

“There is a response that will happen from the region. This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region,” he told US media outlet CNN on Wednesday, adding that “the entire Gulf region is at risk”.

“We are hoping for something meaningful that deters Israel from continuing this bullying,” Sheikh Mohammed added, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leading the region into “chaos”.

“We understand some sort of regional meeting will be held here in Qatar. We know that the countries have pulled together their own legal team. They are looking at all legal avenues to have Netanyahu tried for breaking international law,” Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said.

“So yeah, the pressure is definitely mounting on Israel, not only from Qatar, but obviously on a regional and a wider international level. And that’s what I think he’s obviously trying to do in giving these very forceful statements to the US network, CNN.”

Smoke rises from an explosion caused by an Israeli strike in Doha on September 9, 2025 [UGC via AP Photo]

The Israeli military targeted Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday as they were meeting to discuss the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by US President Donald Trump. At least seven people were killed in the attack, but Hamas said its leadership survived the assassination bid. Qatar says two of its security officers were killed in the attack that has drawn global condemnation.

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Israel’s attack in a phone call with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “These strikes are unacceptable. I condemn them. I reaffirmed France’s commitment to the sovereignty and security of Qatar,” he posted on X.

The attack was part of a wider wave of Israeli strikes extending beyond its immediate borders, and marked the sixth country attacked in just 72 hours and the seventh since the start of this year. On Wednesday, Israel killed 35 people in an attack on Yemen.

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said on Wednesday that Israel’s strike on Qatar is a warning to oil-rich Gulf countries that they would not be spared in the future if armed groups in the region are defeated.

“We are on the side of Qatar that was subjected to an aggression and we also stand with the Palestinian resistance,” Naim Kassem said. He added that the Israeli strike is part of its attempts to create a “Greater Israel” in large parts of the Middle East.

The “Greater Israel” concept supported by ultranationalist Israelis is understood to refer to an expansionist vision that lays claim to the occupied West Bank, Gaza, parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.

Israel has been accused of committing genocide in Gaza by numerous rights groups, but that has not stopped it from its brutal campaign of bombardment. On Wednesday, Israeli attacks across Gaza killed at least 72 people, taking the total number of Palestinians killed since October 2023 to more than 64,656. Israel has intensified its assault to capture Gaza City – home to more than one million Palestinians.

Sheikh Mohammed, the Qatari prime minister, also said that the Israeli strike was aimed at undermining “any chance of peace” in Gaza.

“Everything about the meeting is very well known to the Israelis and the Americans. It’s not something that we are hiding,” he said of the presence of Hamas officials in Qatar.

“I think that what [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu did yesterday – he just killed any hope for those [Israeli] hostages,” Sheikh Mohammed said about the 20 captives believed to be still alive in Gaza.

Netanyahu appears unfazed

However, Netanyahu appears unfazed by the criticism from global leaders, including the UN secretary-general.

On Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister threatened further attacks on Qatar. “I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu said.

Israel has assassinated many of Hamas’s top military and political leaders in the last two years, such as top political leader Yahya Sinwar; military commander Mohammed Deif, one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades in the 1990s; and political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran’s capital, Tehran.

Qatar has condemned Netanyahu’s “reckless” comments regarding Qatar’s hosting of the Hamas office. “Netanyahu is fully aware that the hosting of the Hamas office took place within the framework of Qatar’s mediation efforts requested by the United States and Israel,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

It also called out “the shameful attempt therein to justify the cowardly attack that targeted Qatari territory, as well as the explicit threats of future violations of state sovereignty”.

Netanyahu’s threats came despite the US President Donald Trump on Tuesday saying no further attacks would happen on Qatari soil.

The attack on Tuesday was the first such attack by Israel on Qatar, which has been a key mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and hosts the region’s largest United States military base, Al Udeid airbase, which hosts US troops.

The Qatari prime minister, who is also the foreign minister of the Gulf nation, has dubbed Israel’s targeting of Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday “state terrorism”.

“I have no words to express how enraged we are from such an action … we are betrayed,” he said in the interview with the cable network.

Netanyahu “needs to be brought to justice. He’s the one who’s wanted at the International Criminal Court. He broke every international law,” Sheikh Mohammed said, referring to the arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister for war crimes.

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, September 9, 2025 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Arab states express solidarity with Qatar

Meanwhile, Gulf leaders have visited Doha to rally around Qatar, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan calling the Israeli action “criminal” and a threat to regional stability.

In a meeting on Wednesday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha, Sheikh Al Nahyan reaffirmed his country’s “resolute solidarity with Qatar and its steadfast support for all measures taken to safeguard its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the safety of its people”, according to the UAE state media outlet WAM.

“He [Sheikh Al Nahyan] stressed that the criminal attack constituted a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and of all international laws and norms, warning that such actions threaten the region’s security, stability, and prospects for peace,” WAM added.

The crown princes of Kuwait and Jordan also travelled to Doha on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, will arrive in Doha on Thursday.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, is received by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, emir of Qatar, as he arrives at Doha International Airport, in Doha, Qatar [Abdulla Al Bedwawi/Handout via Reuters]More

“We will stand with the State of Qatar in all measures it takes, without limits, and we will harness all our capabilities for that,” Prince Mohammed said in an address to the Shura Council on Wednesday.

“We reject and condemn the attacks of the Israeli occupation in the region, the latest of which was the brutal aggression against the State of Qatar,” the crown prince added.

“This requires Arab, Islamic, and international action to confront this aggression and to take international measures to stop the occupation authority and deter it from its criminal practices aimed at destabilising the region’s security and stability.”

In a brief interview with reporters on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he was “not thrilled” about Israel’s strike.

“This was a decision made by [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Still, it remains unclear whether the Trump administration had been caught off guard, whether the US had indicated even tacit approval for such a strike, or if the attack could represent a rupture in Washington’s “ironclad” support for Israel.

Independent Middle East Analyst Adam Shapiro said if the US was not made aware of the attack, it was not “something new”.

“I think this is just simply the way Israel continually acts as the tail wagging the US dog, doing what it wishes, when it wishes, and getting what it wants, according to a double standard,” he told Al Jazeera.

Qatar says Netanyahu must be 'brought to justice' over strikes

Ali CHOUKEIR
Wed, September 10, 2025 


The nearly two-year Gaza war has created dire humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million (Omar AL-QATTAA)Omar AL-QATTAA/AFP/AFPMore


Qatar's prime minister warned Wednesday that an unprecedented Israeli strike in Doha targeting Hamas killed hope for Gaza hostages, calling for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to be "brought to justice".

His comments came a day after deadly strikes targeted Hamas leaders in Qatar -- a US ally -- a first in the oil-rich Gulf that rattled a region long shielded from conflict.

"I think that what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told CNN.

Doha is "reassessing everything" around their involvement in future ceasefire talks and discussing next steps with Washington, he added in comments cited in CNN's live blog after an interview with the broadcaster.

The attack, just three months after Iran launched a retaliatory strike on a US airbase in Qatar, also cast serious doubt on Qatar-mediated Gaza ceasefire talks and undermined security reassurances to the Gulf from key ally Washington.

Earlier Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed that Israel would "act against its enemies anywhere" while Netanyahu urged Qatar to expel Hamas officials or hold them to account, "because if you don't, we will".

Qatar has hosted Hamas's political bureau since 2012 with Washington's blessing, and has been a key mediator in Gaza talks alongside Egypt and the United States.

Israel's military said it struck Huthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday, including in the capital Sanaa, killing 35 people according to the rebels.

Palestinian militant group Hamas said six people were killed in Tuesday's strikes in Qatar, but its senior leaders had survived, affirming "the enemy's failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation".

The White House said Trump did not agree with Israel's decision to take military action.

Trump said he was not notified in advance and when he heard, asked his envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar immediately -- but the attack had already started.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, sought to justify the decision, telling an Israeli radio station: "It was not an attack on Qatar; it was an attack on Hamas."


- 'Shaken conscience of world' -

Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran said Israel "represents a real danger to the security and stability of the region".

"It is in an open war with everyone, not just with the Palestinian people," he said.

In Gaza City on Wednesday, the Israeli military destroyed another high-rise building as it intensified its assault on the territory's largest urban centre, despite mounting calls to end its campaign.

The military issued an evacuation warning to those living in and around the Tiba 2 tower, before later saying it had "struck a high-rise building that was used by the Hamas terrorist organisation".

AFP images showed huge plumes of smoke billowing into the sky as the residential tower in western Gaza City crashed to the ground.

In the aftermath, young girls rushed to pick dust-covered dough out of the rubble.

Siham Abu al-Foul told AFP she couldn't take anything with her when the army issued the evacuation orders.

"They brought down the tower and we came running and there was nothing left... Everything we fixed in two years was gone in a minute."

The Israeli military said it had struck 360 targets since Friday and vowed that it would "increase the pace of targeted strikes" in the Gaza City area in the coming days.

The Gaza war has created catastrophic humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million, with the United Nations last month declaring a famine in Gaza City and its surroundings.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she would push to sanction "extremist" Israeli ministers and curb trade ties over the dire situation.

"What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world," she said.


- 'Not thrilled' -

Israel's targeting of Hamas leaders in Qatar sparked international condemnation.

Trump said he was not notified in advance of the Israeli strikes and was "not thrilled about the whole situation".

"I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack," he said in a social media post, adding Hamas's elimination was still a "worthy goal".

Canada said it was reassessing its relationship with Israel following the Doha strikes.

Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the assault, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,656 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.


In exclusive CNN interview, Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages

Max Saltman, Caitlin Danaher, Mitchell McCluskey, Mostafa Salem, 

CNN
Wed, September 10, 2025

Scroll back up to restore default view.

Qatar’s prime minister excoriated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an exclusive interview with CNN on Wednesday, calling Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Doha “barbaric.”

“We were thinking that we are dealing with civilized people,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani told CNN’s Becky Anderson. “That’s the way we are dealing with others. And the action that (Netanyahu) took – I cannot describe it, but it’s a barbaric action.”

Al-Thani added that he believes Israel’s strike on Doha on Tuesday “killed any hope” for the hostages remaining in Gaza.

“I was meeting one of the hostage’s families the morning of the attack,” Al-Thani said. “They are counting on this (ceasefire) mediation, they have no other hope for that.”

“I think that what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” the prime minister said.

The attack in Doha was nothing less than “state terror,” Al-Thani told CNN. The prime minister had used the same term on Tuesday when he took the podium at a news conference and laid into Israel for its actions.

During that news conference, Al-Thani was visibly angry. He expressed the same outrage Wednesday, some thirty-six hours after the strike.

“I have no words to express how enraged we are from such an action. … This is state terror,” Al-Thani told CNN. “We are betrayed.”
‘No official declaration’ on Hamas negotiator after strike

Al-Thani notably did not reveal the fate of Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, following Israel’s attack targeting the group’s leadership in Doha on Tuesday.

When asked by CNN on the whereabouts of the chief negotiator, Al-Thani said that “until now … there is no official declaration.”

Hamas had initially said five of its members were killed in the strike, but it failed to assassinate the negotiating delegation.

A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday. - Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

Al-Thani said a 22-year-old Qatari security officer was killed in the attack.

“We are trying to identify if there is any other one missing. … There are Qataris who are in a very dangerous situation,” he added.

Al-Thani said he could not predict what Hamas’ response to the latest US principles for a ceasefire would have been had Israel not struck Doha, but said that he believed that Israel and Hamas “are going to run out of chances” to secure a ceasefire.
Qatar ‘reassessing’ mediation

Shortly after the strike, Al-Thani had told reporters that Qatar would not be deterred in its mediation efforts. However, the prime minister said Wednesday that Netanyahu has “undermined any chance of stability, any chance of peace” by targeting Hamas leadership in the Qatari capital.

“I’ve been rethinking, even about the entire process for the last few weeks, that Netanyahu was just wasting our time,” Al-Thani said.

“He wasn’t serious about anything,” he added, as he dismissed recent talks as “meaningless.”

Al-Thani added the Qataris are “reassessing everything” around their involvement in any future ceasefire talks, and added they are in a “very detailed conversation” with the United States government on how to proceed.

Qatar, which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, is a major American ally. US President Donald Trump was informed of the strike only shortly before it began — and not by Israel itself, but by Chairman of the Joint Staff General Dan Caine, according to a US official.

Trump immediately told White House special envoy Steve Witkoff to brief Qatar, according to another US official. Witkoff has a longstanding relationship with the Qataris.

Israeli protestors take part in a rally demanding the immediate release of the October 7 hostages and the end of war in Gaza, in Jerusalem, on Saturday. - Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

While Trump stopped short of condemning the attack, on Tuesday his spokesperson said that the president was concerned. Al-Thani told CNN on Wednesday that the United States has expressed their support for Qatar “on many occasions.”

“I’m following up with all the US officials in order to see what kind of actions can be taken as we speak,” Al-Thani added.

This weekend, the US proposed a new ceasefire framework. Trump said Israel had agreed to its terms and that it was “time for Hamas to accept as well.”

Qatar’s prime minister pressed Hamas to “respond positively” to this proposal in a meeting in Doha, according to an official familiar with that discussion.

Hamas was then due to respond Tuesday evening to the proposal, a diplomat briefed on the talks told CNN, before Israel’s strike on Doha.
A regional response

Qatar hopes that there will be a “collective response” to Israel’s strike on Hamas officials in Doha, Al-Thani said.

“There is a response that will happen from the region. This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region,” Al-Thani said.

Al-Thani stated that an Arab-Islamic summit will be held in Doha in the coming days, where the participants will decide on a course of action.

However, Al-Thani said that Qatar will not ask other regional partners to respond in a particular way.

“There is a collective response that should happen from the region,” Al-Thani said, “We are hoping for something meaningful that deters Israel from continuing this bullying.”

 CNN.com


Bowen: Diplomacy in ruins after Israel strikes Hamas leaders in Qatar

Jeremy Bowen - International editor

BBC
Tue, September 9, 2025


[Reuters]


Almost exactly a year ago I interviewed the Hamas leader and chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya in Doha. I met him in a house not far from the building that Israel attacked on Tuesday afternoon.

From the beginning of the war in Gaza, al-Hayya had been the chief Hamas negotiator, sending and receiving messages to the Israelis and Americans via Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries.

At moments where ceasefires were thought likely, al-Hayya, along with the men who were also targeted this afternoon, were only a short distance from the Israeli and American delegations. When they were attacked, al-Hayya and the other top Hamas leaders were discussing the latest American diplomatic proposals to end the war in Gaza and free the remaining Israeli hostages.

Israel's swift declaration of what it had done immediately fuelled speculation on social media that the latest American proposals were simply a ruse to get the Hamas leadership in one place where they could be targeted.

Follow live: Israel strikes Qatar's capital

What do we know about Israel's attack in Doha?

On 3rd October last year, as Khalil al-Hayya walked into the venue for our meeting in a modest, low-rise villa, I was surprised that he had so little security. We had to give up our phones, and a couple of bodyguards came with him into the house.

Outside plain clothes Qatari police sat smoking in an SUV. That was it. A hundred bodyguards could not have stopped an air strike, but al-Hayya and his people were relaxed and confident.

The point was that Qatar was supposed to be safe, and they felt secure enough to move around relatively openly.

A few months earlier, on 31 July 2024, Israel had assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader in Tehran, where he was attending the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.

With the war in Gaza raging, I had wondered whether it might be dangerous to sit in the same room as Khalil al-Hayya. But like him, I thought Qatar was off limits.

In the last few decades Qatar has tried to carve itself a position as the Switzerland of the Middle East, a place where even enemies could make deals.

The Americans negotiated with the Afghan Taliban in Doha. And in the almost two years since the attacks on 7th October 2023, Qatar has been the centre of the diplomatic efforts to negotiate ceasefires and perhaps even an end to the war.

The peace efforts, driven by President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, were faltering badly. But now they are in ruins. In the words of one senior western diplomat "there is no diplomacy."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Israelis that their enemies will never be able to sleep easy and are paying the price for ordering the 7th October attacks.

Hamas leader and chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya [Reuters]

The Israeli offensive in Gaza is gathering pace. A few hours before the attack on Doha, the Israeli military, the IDF, told all Palestinians in Gaza City to leave and move south. It's thought something like one million civilians could be affected.

In his televised comments Netanyahu told Palestinians in Gaza "don't be derailed by these killers. Stand up for your rights and your future. Make peace with us. Accept President Trump's proposal. Don't worry, you can do it, and we can promise you a different future, but you've got to take these people out of the way. If you do, there is no limit to our common future."

If Palestinians in Gaza are able to hear his words, they will ring very hollow. Israel has destroyed the homes of hundreds of thousands of them, as well as hospitals, universities and schools.

With Gaza already gripped by starvation, famine in Gaza City itself and a humanitarian catastrophe across the territory the forced movement of many more people will only increase Israel's lethal pressure on civilians.

Israel has already killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority of whom were civilians. Netanyahu himself faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes, and Israel is being investigated by the International Court of Justice for genocide.

The attack in Doha is a sign that Netanyahu and his government will press forward as hard as they can all fronts, not just Gaza. They are confident that with American support, their military can enforce their will.

The Doha attack earned a rare rebuke from the White House. Qatar is a valuable ally, that hosts a huge US military base and is a major investor in the US.

But Netanyahu appears to be calculating that Donald Trump, the only leader he feels he must listen to, will content himself with the diplomatic equivalent of a rap over the knuckles.

Israel's offensive in Gaza continues. And as the planned recognition of Palestinian independence at the UN later this month by the UK, France, Canada, Australia and other western countries approaches, Netanyahu's ultra nationalist cabinet allies will redouble calls to respond with the annexation of occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank.


Who is Khalil al-Hayya, who else was targeted in Israel’s attack on Qatar?

Al Jazeera Staff
Tue, September 9, 2025 

Israel’s military described its attack on a residential complex in central Doha, Qatar, as a “precise” attack.

In an official statement on Tuesday, the Palestinian movement Hamas said the attack killed five of its members, and a Qatari officer, but did not eliminate its negotiating delegation or any of its senior leadership.

Here is what we know about the victims, and the senior leaders who were targeted – but who appear to have survived the attack:
Who is Khalil al-Hayya?

Reports say the strike targeted senior Hamas figures, including Khalil al-Hayya, the group’s exiled Gaza leader and main negotiator.
Al-Hayya rose in importance after the killings of top Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, and military commander Mohammed Deif last year. Sinwar, who had taken charge in Gaza after Haniyeh’s death, was killed later in 2024.

With those losses, al-Hayya is now one of five leaders steering Hamas’s leadership council.

The leadership council is the temporary, five-member ruling committee formed in late 2024 to govern the group during the war.

Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya sits at a mourning house for assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Doha, [File: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]

Born in the Gaza Strip in 1960, al-Hayya has been part of Hamas since it was established in 1987. He became especially important on the diplomatic front, based mainly in Qatar, which became the main hub for mediation with other countries, including Israel, Egypt, and the United States.

Operating outside Gaza allowed him to travel and coordinate between neighbouring countries without the constraints of the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Al-Hayya has also led Hamas’s delegations in mediated talks with Israel to try to secure a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Al-Hayya’s family has suffered as a result of Israeli attacks: During the 2014 war, an Israeli strike destroyed the house of his eldest son, Osama, killing him, his wife, and three of their children, and during Tuesday’s attack, his son, Humam, was killed.
Who else is believed to have been targeted, and who was killed during the attack?

According to reports, Zaher Jabarin is also believed to have been a target of Israel’s attack. He currently serves as the movement’s chief financial administrator.

In 1993, Israel arrested Jabarin and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He spent almost two decades in prison before being released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange.

Following his release, Jabarin rose quickly through Hamas’s ranks. He became head of the group’s financial bureau, managing and overseeing an extensive investment and funding network. He currently also heads Hamas in the occupied West Bank, and is one of the five members of the leadership council.

Those killed during Israel’s attack in Qatar were:

Jihad Labad – director of al-Hayya’s office


Humam al-Hayya – al-Hayya’s son


Abdullah Abdul Wahid – bodyguard


Moamen Hassouna – bodyguard


Ahmed al-Mamluk – bodyguard

The sixth person killed, according to Qatar, was Corporal Bader Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, a member of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya).
Who are the current leaders of Hamas?

With many of Hamas’s leadership killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, the group formed a five-man leadership council – which includes al-Hayya and Jabarin – and also has a senior military figure in Gaza.

Izz al-Din al-Haddad

Al-Haddad became the most senior Hamas military leader in the Gaza Strip after Sinwar’s death. Israel considers him one of the masterminds behind October 7 and has placed him on its most-wanted list. He is not a member of the five-man leadership council.

Khaled Meshaal

Khaled Meshaal, 68, has been a senior political leader of Hamas, a Palestinian resistance movement, since the 1990s. In 1997, Israeli agents attempted to inject a slow-acting lethal chemical into his ear on a public street in Jordan, but the operation was botched, and the men were soon arrested. He is now based in Qatar, serving on the leadership council.

“It is true that in reality, there will be an entity or a state called Israel on the rest of Palestinian land,” Meshaal has said. “But I won’t deal with it in terms of recognising or admitting it.”

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal speaks during an interview [File: Fadi Al-Assaad/Reuters]

Mohammad Darwish

He is also based in Qatar, and is the nominal head of Hamas’s leadership council. According to reports, in early 2025, he met Turkiye’s President Erdogan and publicly endorsed the idea of a technocratic or national unity government for post-war Gaza.
Nizar Awadallah

Awadallah is a long-time Hamas leader. He is seen as one of Hamas’s original members and has held several important positions, including in its armed wing. Since the October 7 attacks, he has not spoken publicly or appeared in the media.

Exclusive-India explores rare-earth deal with Myanmar rebels after Chinese curbs

Neha Arora and Naw Betty Han
Tue, September 9, 2025

FILE PHOTO: Rare earths at Laboratory of Physics and Material studies (LPEM) in Paris

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is working to obtain rare-earth samples from Myanmar with the assistance of a powerful rebel group, according to four people familiar with the matter, as it seeks alternative supplies of a strategic resource tightly controlled by China.

India's Ministry of Mines asked state-owned and private firms to explore collecting and transporting samples from mines in northeastern Myanmar that are under the control of the Kachin Independence Army, three of the people said.

State-owned miner IREL and private firm Midwest Advanced Materials - which received government funding last year for the commercial manufacturing of rare-earth magnets - were among those involved in the discussions, the sources said.

New Delhi hopes to test the samples in domestic labs to ensure they contain sufficient levels of heavy rare earths that can be processed into magnets used in electronic vehicles and other advanced equipment, according to the people.

The ministry made the request - signalling a rare instance of Delhi engaging with a non-state actor - at an online meeting in July, according to two of the people. The meeting was attended by representatives from IREL, Midwest and at least one other company, one of the sources said.

The KIA has started gathering samples for India's analysis, said the fourth person, who is an official with the armed group. The rebels have also agreed to assess if bulk exports to India are possible, according to the KIA official, who like the other sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Details of India's engagement with the KIA are reported by Reuters for the first time.

India's foreign and mining ministries did not respond to Reuters' questions. IREL and Midwest also did not return requests for comment.

A spokesperson for the KIA did not respond to calls and messages.

CHINESE CONTROL

Although rare earths are relatively abundant, China has near-absolute control over the technology that processes the minerals into magnets.

Beijing has sharply restricted exports of processed rare earths to major economies like India this year as it seeks to shore up geopolitical leverage amid its trade war with the United States.

Delhi has made moves to shore up supplies. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Aug. 31 that he had discussed rare-earth mining during a meeting in China with Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, whose forces are battling the KIA. He did not elaborate.

No deal was publicly announced and the junta did not return a request for comment.

India is also seeking to address its lack of industrial-scale facilities to process rare-earth elements to high purity levels. IREL has sought partnerships with Japanese and Korean companies to begin commercial production of rare-earth magnets, Reuters reported last month.

Asked by Reuters about India's engagement with the KIA, an Indian official familiar with deliberations in Delhi said that the country's interest in critical minerals was not a secret. "We naturally encourage commercial cooperation on a business-to-business basis for securing rare earth minerals from available suppliers globally," the official said, without directly referencing interactions with the rebel group.

IREL sent a team to Kachin state in December to study resources, Reuters previously reported. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has also heard proposals for tapping Myanmar's supplies of rare earths, including one that would involve cooperation with India, the news agency reported.

China has an ongoing relationship with the KIA, which also supplies Beijing with heavy rare earths, said Angshuman Choudhury, a Singapore-based independent analyst of India-Myanmar relations.

"If China is liaising with the KIA to secure access to rare earths, why should India be left behind?" he said. "That competition also frames this outreach."

A spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry said in response to Reuters' questions that Beijing was not aware of the KIA potentially working with India, but "all relevant parties in northern Myanmar appreciate and thank China for its constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the region."

LONG-TERM DEAL?

The KIA was formed in 1961 to secure the autonomy of Myanmar's minority Kachin community and has since expanded to become one of the most formidable armed groups in the country.

After Myanmar's military ousted an elected civilian government in a 2021 coup, triggering a nationwide uprising, the KIA emerged as a bulwark of the resistance against the China-backed junta.

Last year, it seized from junta-aligned forces the Chipwe-Pangwa mining belt in Kachin state that produces the bulk of the global supply of heavy rare earths like dysprosium and terbium.

While the KIA continues to supply China with the minerals, their relationship has run into friction over the KIA's ongoing battle with junta troops over the strategically vital town of Bhamo.

Beijing sees the junta as a guarantor of stability in its backyard and has pressured the KIA to back down. The militia, in turn, is ramping up engagement with neighbouring India.

Officials in Delhi are interested in a long-term arrangement with the KIA to build a supply route for rare earths but there are concerns over the logistical challenges of bringing large quantities of the material across remote and under-developed mountainous regions, two of the people said.

Minerals are transported to nearby China via a road network.

IREL is involved in some of those discussions, but it wants a private company to take responsibility for the transportation, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Even if the KIA and India were able to work out an arrangement over sending rare earths to India, the parties would face challenges processing the minerals without Chinese assistance, said Belgium-based rare-earths expert Nabeel Mancheri.

"Theoretically, if India gets these materials, they could separate and make useful products," he said. "But it would take time to scale this up to produce meaningful quantities catering to international markets."

(Additional reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal in Bangkok, Shivam Patel in New Delhi, Shoon Naing, Rishika Sadam and the Beijing newsroom; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Katerina Ang)

MAGA'S HORST WESSEL

This Resurfaced Video Of Charlie Kirk Explaining Why He Thinks Gun Deaths Are "Worth It" Is Going Viral

Alexa Lisitza
Wed, September 10, 2025 
BUZZFEED

Earlier today, conservative personality and prominent Trump ally Charlie Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at a Utah Valley University event.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Donald Trump announced news of his passing on Truth Social, writing, "The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us."

Truth Social: @realDonaldTrump / truthsocial.com

In light of these events, Kirk's vocal pro-gun stance is being reexamined.

Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images


One moment from 2023 is going particularly viral. In a resurfaced video from a Turning Point USA event, Kirk says, "We must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty."

"Driving comes with a price. Fifty thousand people die on the road every year. That's a price. You get rid of driving, you'd have 50,000 less auto fatalities. But we have decided that the benefit of driving — speed, accessibility, mobility...is worth the cost of 50,000 people dying on the road."

"We need to be very clear that you're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen," he continues. "But I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment."


Twitter: @JasonSCampbell

He goes on to suggest that efforts to stop shootings should include more armed guards at locations and events.

Rebecca Noble / Getty Images

Video of Kirk's 2023 talk has reached millions of new viewers, many of whom are leaving comments saying the speech "aged like milk."


Twitter: @yumipill

Graphic video of Kirk shooting was everywhere online, showing how media gatekeeper role has changed

DAVID BAUDER
Wed, September 10, 2025 

FILE - Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives at the Turning Point Believers' Summit, July 26, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)More


They were careful with the explicit imagery — as usual. But did it make any difference?

Traditional news organizations were cautious in their midafternoon coverage of Charlie Kirk's assassination Wednesday not to depict the moment he was shot, instead showing video of him tossing a hat to his audience moments before, and panicked onlookers scattering wildly in the moments after.

In practical terms, though, it mattered little. Gory video of the shooting was available almost instantly online, from several angles, in slow-motion and real-time speed. Millions of people watched.

Video was easy to find on X, on Facebook, on TikTok, on Instagram, on YouTube — even on Truth Social, where President Donald Trump posted official word of the conservative activist's death. It illustrated how the “gatekeeping” role of news organizations has changed in the era of social media.

Kirk was shot at a public event before hundreds of people at a Utah college campus, many of them holding up phones to record a celebrity in their midst and savvy about how to disseminate video evidence of a news event.

On X, there was a video showing a direct view of Kirk being shot, his body recoiling and blood gushing from a wound. One video was a loop showing the moment of impact in slow-motion, stopping before blood is seen. Another, taken from Kirk's left, included audio that suggested Kirk was talking about gun violence at the moment he was shot.

For more than 150 years, news organizations like newspapers and television networks have long been accustomed to “gatekeeping” when it comes to explicit content — making editorial decisions around violent events to decide what images and words appear on their platforms for their readers or viewers. But in the fragmented era of social media, smartphones and instant video uploads, editorial decisions by legacy media are less impactful than ever.

Images spread across the country

Across the country in Ithaca, New York, college professor Sarah Kreps' teenage sons texted her about Kirk's assassination shortly after school was dismissed and they could access their phones.

No, she told them. He was shot, but there were no reports that he had died. Her son answered: Have you seen the video? There's no way he could have survived that.

The videos were posted and reposted at lightning speed. One person on X urged “stop the violence” but then included a clip of the shooting. Several people took to social media to plead for people not to spread the images. “For the love of God and Charlie's family,” read one message, “just stop.”

YouTube said it was removing “some graphic content” related to the event if it doesn't provide sufficient context, and restricting videos so they could not be seen by users under age 18 or those who are not signed in, the company said.


Matthew Dowd on MSNBC wonders if Charlie Kirk shooting may have been “supporter shooting their gun off in celebration.”


“Our hearts are with Charlie Kirk's family following his tragic death,” YouTube said. “We are closely monitoring our platform and prominently elevating news content on the homepage, in search and in recommendations to help people stay informed.”

Meta's rules don't prohibit posting videos like Kirk's shooting, but warning labels are applied and they are not shown to users who say they are under 18. The parent company of Instagram, Facebook and Threads referred a reporter to the company's policies on violent and graphic content, which they indicated would apply in this case, but had no further comment. An X representative did not immediately return a request for comment.

It's an issue social media companies have dealt with before, in equally gruesome circumstances. Facebook was forced to contend with people wanting to livestream violence with a mass shooting in New Zealand in 2019, said Cornell University's Kreps, author of the forthcoming book, “Harnessing Disruption: Building the Tech Future Without Breaking Society.”

Getting to the other side

Some images seeped out into more traditional media. TMZ posted a video of Kirk in which a shot and a voice saying, “Oh, my God,” can be heard, but Kirk’s upper body was blurred out. A similar video with a blurred image of Kirk was posted on the New York Post’s website.

In such an atmosphere, the care shown by most traditional news outlets may seem quaint or old-fashioned. But news industry leaders are acutely aware of protecting people from graphic images when they are not expecting it; happening upon them is a little harder online, where many people have to search for and click on an image if they want to see it — if it hasn’t already been sent to you or your group chat.

There can also be an important message sent by news outlets being cautious in what they show, Kreps said. “The traditional media can amplify and validate behavior,” she said. “It can be a signal for how things should be stigmatized, rather than validated or normalized.

But on the day of the shooting in a politically polarized country, the easy availability of shocking images ran the risk of making society's wound even more painful.

“I don't see how many signs of how we get — as a people, as a nation — to the other side of this,” said CNN's David Chalian. “I think we are broken, and potentially beyond repair.”

___

AP correspondent Barbara Ortutay in San Francisco contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him a

Trump Pours Gas On The Flames With Incendiary Statement On Charlie Kirk Assassination

Mollie Reilly
Wed, September 10, 2025

President Donald Trump quickly placed blame for conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination on the rhetoric of the “radical left,” despite no evidence yet indicating the shooter’s motive.

In a video message posted by the White House on Wednesday evening, Trump mourned the loss of Kirk, a fierce ally of the president’s who helped Trump build support among young conservatives.

Politics: Wall Street Journal Warns Donald Trump: This Excuse Won’t Work ‘For Much Longer’

“I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah,” Trump said. “Charlie inspired millions, and tonight all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.”




Trump continued: “He’s a martyr for truth and freedom, and there’s never been anyone who was so respected by youth.”

After praising Kirk for his commitment to his Christian faith, Trump pivoted to blaming the shooting on the “radical left,” claiming that people who described Kirk as a Nazi are “directly responsible.”

“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree,” Trump said. “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

There is currently no suspect in custody, nor are there any indications from investigators of the shooter’s possible motive.

Trump said his administration would track down every person who “contributed to this atrocity.” He then went on to list several acts of violence he blamed on the “left,” including the 2024 assassination attempt against him, the shooting at a congressional baseball team practice in 2017 that left Rep. Steve Scalise injured and the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year.

“Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” Trump said.

Trump did not mention any of the many recent examples of violence against left-leaning politicians, including the shooting of two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota this summer


Trump’s comments are likely to fuel further calls from his most fervent supporters to seek retribution for Kirk’s death.

On Fox News, host Jesse Watters vowed to “avenge” Kirk’s death.

“Everybody’s accountable,” he said.

Billionaire and erstwhile Trump ally Elon Musk offered a similar message to the president on X: “The Left is the party of murder.”

“THIS IS WAR,” declared Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik.

Trump administration dissolves group that authored controversial report sowing doubt in the severity of climate change

Ella Nilsen, CNN
Wed, September 10, 2025 

Energy Secretary Chris Wright outside the White House on March 19. - Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Climate scientists are declaring victory after the Trump administration dissolved a working group of five well-known climate contrarians that authored a recent federal report questioning the severity of climate change and even portraying it as potentially beneficial.

A letter dated September 3 from Energy Sec. Chris Wright confirming the dissolution of the group was sent to the five researchers — John Christy and Roy Spencer, both at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, Steven E. Koonin of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Georgia Tech professor emeritus Judith Curry and Canadian economist Ross McKitrick.

The group’s end can be traced to a lawsuit filed by the Environmental Defense Fund and Union of Concerned Scientists alleging the group’s formation violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act in several ways, mainly by failing to disclose the group’s formation “until months after it began working,” and by choosing members of a federal government working group to deliberately represent a one-sided argument.

Though the group has been disbanded, DOE will not withdraw the report it authored, which sparked resistance across the climate science community and stirred a coordinated response during the required public-comment period.

“DOE determined that the draft report and the public comments it solicited achieved the purpose of the CWG, namely to catalyze broader discussion about the certainties and uncertainties of current climate science,” a DOE spokesperson said. “We will continue to engage in the debate in favor of a more science-based and less ideological conversation around climate science.”

Curry wrote in a personal blog post on September 2 that the group’s activities were “currently on hold” due to the lawsuit. Wright notified the researchers of the dissolution a day later.

“Having collided with so many orthodoxies, I’m confident that we’ve excited the much-needed debate in this area and can dissolve the Climate Working Group,” Wright wrote his letter. “It is unsurprising that we are now facing yet another effort to declare the science ‘settled’ and to shut down this debate.”

Wright handpicked the researchers earlier this year to write the controversial report questioning the scientific consensus on the severity and impacts of climate change. A draft of the report was released in July as evidence for the administration’s proposal to repeal a 2009 scientific finding that human-caused climate change endangers human health and safety.

“The agency considered a variety of sources and information in assessing whether the predictions made, and assumptions used, in the 2009 Endangerment Finding are accurate,” an EPA spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “EPA’s proposal is legal in nature.”

The report generated concerted pushback from the scientific community. More than 100 climate scientists – many of whom coordinated their efforts – submitted over 400 pages in public comments to the Energy Department last week.

Andrew Dessler, a climate researcher at Texas A&M University who helped organize the public comments to push back against the report, told CNN he believes the Energy Department and the former working group were ill-equipped to respond to the deluge of comments they received.

“My interpretation is they’re waving the white flag,” Dessler said. “How do five people respond to thousands of comments? They don’t have the arguments or the knowledge in a lot of areas. Any attempt to respond would have revealed how unscientific the report actually was.”

The Trump administration promoted the Energy Department report at the same time it deleted all previous congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment reports from government websites and fired the scientists working on the next iteration of the report. In an CNN interview last month, Wright said the Trump administration was also updating previously published National Climate Assessments, which drew alarm from climate scientists.

In his letter, Wright said the report and the “resulting debate it invited exceeded my expectations.”

“The discourse around this issue will benefit from your work and the public comment process; both create long overdue space for a variety of scientific viewpoints,” Wright wrote.

Curry told CNN in an email that while the group has been disbanded, it is “still working independently,” and plans to “issue a revised report and respond to any serious comments.”

Dessler said the dissolution is a significant blow to the years-long desire of climate contrarians to have a sham “red-team, blue team” debate on the merits of climate science, something former group member Koonin suggested in an interview with E&E News would happen in the future.

Dessler said he believed the working group’s dissolution means there will be no such debate, nor an official point by point rebuttal from the Trump administration.

“My sense is this is a disaster for them; they honestly believed they had good arguments,” Dessler added.

CNN’s Andrew Freedman contributed to this report.

 CNN.com

Trump Hands His Favorite Son-in-Law a New Job

KUSHNER REALITY; 

GAZA BEACHFRONT PROPERTIES FOR SALE

Will Neal
Tue, September 9, 2025 

Kevin Dietsch-Pool / Getty Images


Donald Trump has reportedly tasked Jared Kushner with drafting plans for the “day after” any prospective ceasefire is agreed between Israel and Hamas.

The Trump insider—who is officially a private citizen—was spotted in Miami sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-hand man, Ron Dermer.

Businessman and investor Kushner, who is also Ivanka Trump’s husband, does not hold an official title in the second Trump administration, but appears to have a role in the peace efforts.

Kushner, who's married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has increasingly emerged as the White House's man on the War in Gaza. / MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP via Getty Images

The hush-hush session came as a fresh U.S. proposal aimed at ending the war in Gaza and hammering out what comes after a ceasefire.

The meeting also included Steve Witkoff, a White House envoy, according to a U.S. official and another source with knowledge of the talks. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is also involved in the peace effort, was also there.

Kushner's joined in advising the White House by former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. / China News Service / China News Service via Getty Ima

Kushner previously worked as a senior adviser during Trump’s first term, when he was central to brokering a series of normalization agreements between Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, known as the Abraham Accords.

A U.S. real estate mogul in his own right, he’s become a significant player in Middle Eastern business circles and is the largest investor in Israeli insurance and financial group Phoenix Holdings.

Kushner and Blair met with Trump, Witkoff, and several other senior MAGA officials two weeks ago.

According to Axios, Trump is understood to have been impressed by Kushner’s suggestions, signing off on them, and tasking him with developing a more detailed plan for any post-war scenario.

Last week, Witkoff shared new U.S. proposals with Hamas for prospective terms of a ceasefire deal. These include the release of all 48 hostages, including the 28 presumed dead, still in Hamas captivity following the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in 2023, ending Israel’s bombardment of Gaza City, and a start to negotiations on ending the conflict, as well as the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied Palestinian territory.

“We’re working on a solution that maybe could be very good,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “I think we’re gonna have a deal on Gaza very soon. It’s a hell of a problem.”

The president has previously courted considerable controversy with proposals for transforming Gaza into a tourist enclave, dubbed the “Riviera of the Middle East,” in part by expelling the beleaguered remaining Palestinian population from the Israeli-occupied 

The backlash only deepened in February after Trump shared an outlandish AI-generated video on social media featuring a deranged rendering of not only a “Trump Gaza” hotel, but also the shirtless U.S. and Israeli presidents sipping drinks poolside at the imagined luxury resort.