babysandpiper

"And they have the audacity to try to brand this as Christian. What does that word even mean to them? Wearing a necklace?" AOC added

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) again slammed Republicans for supporting Donald Trump's "big, beautiful" bill as the initiative gets closer to passing in the Lower House.

The lawmaker wrote the post while responding to an article by the New York Times, which detailed that a "conga line of angsty Republican lawmakers filed through the West Wing on Wednesday, hemming and hawing about the" bill only to walk out with "signed merchandise, photos in the Oval Office and, by some accounts, a newfound appreciation for the bill."

Every person in the Netherlands has "forever chemicals" in their blood, according to the country's first national study on the topic.

The study, published Thursday, indicates that having per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (known as PFAS) in levels above safety thresholds does not automatically lead to illness.

"However, it does mean that PFAS can have an effect on the body. For example, the immune system may function less effectively. The effects depend on the amount of PFAS, the duration of exposure, and a person's individual health condition," reads the study, conducted by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, or RIVM.

The Department of Homeland Security's intelligence arm plans to cut nearly three-quarters of its full-time employees, shaving its Office of Intelligence & Analysis down from about 1,000 staff to just 275, according to four sources briefed on the matter.

The exact timing of the cuts remains unclear; sources tell CBS News the staff reductions have been in the works for months but were temporarily on hold because of rising tensions overseas after the recent U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. The decision has raised concerns among the nation's police and intelligence gathering agencies, as the U.S. reckons with a heightened threat environment.

DHS' Office of Intelligence & Analysis — created after the September 11 terrorist attacks — is the only member of the U.S. intelligence community tasked with sharing threat information to state, local, tribal and territorial governments across the country.

Signalling a shift in policy, Germany's interior minister has said the need for mediators to negotiate with Afghanistan's rulers is "not a permanent solution."

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has called for an agreement with the Taliban to receive Afghan convited criminals deported from Germany.

The Taliban took over Afghanistan's government in August 2021 following the NATO withdrawal. Since then, Germany has not had official diplomatic ties with the Taliban government, which it did not recognize as legitimate.

Last year, Germany flew Afghans who had been convicted with crimes to Afghanistan. The deportation took place after secret negotiations with mediator Qatar.

Four people were killed and 14 others wounded in a mass shooting Wednesday night in Chicago, police said.

The carnage erupted in the River North neighborhood, on the 300 block of West Chicago Avenue, when a vehicle pulled up to a location and at least one gunman opened fire on a crowd standing outside, Chicago police said.

The vehicle fled the scene immediately and no one has been taken into custody, police said.

Facebook mogul’s sudden appearance is increasingly typical of freewheeling West Wing during Donald Trump’s second term, which president has reportedly nicknamed ‘Grand Central Terminal’

Air Force leaders learned that lesson earlier this year when they arrived for a top-secret briefing with Trump in the Oval Office, which according to NBC News was scheduled for them to discuss plans for America’s sixth-generation fighter aircraft, dubbed the F-47 in a nod to Trump’s status as the 47th President of the United States.

As the generals were going over the details of the super-stealthy plane, which Trump has called the most advanced, capable and lethal combat aircraft platform ever built, they were startled by the appearance of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg popping into the Oval Office.

According to NBC, White House officials became concerned that Zuckerberg, one of the wealthiest men in the world, lacked the security clearance required to be present for talks about such a sensitive national security matter.

Danish European Affairs Minister Marie Bjerre says Copenhagen will ramp up Article 7 proceedings against Budapest.

Denmark wants Europe to deploy its full legal arsenal against Hungary over violations of the bloc’s fundamental rights, including by pursuing the Article 7 so-called nuclear option against Budapest.

“We are still seeing a violation on fundamental values,” Danish European Affairs Minister Marie Bjerre told reporters in Aarhus, where the European Commission is on a visit as Copenhagen takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. “That is why we will continue the Article 7 procedure and the hearing on Hungary.”

Article 7 is a clause in the EU treaty that allows countries to vote to exclude or penalize a member that falls afoul of the bloc’s rules. It’s widely considered to be a nuclear legal option, which the EU has so far stopped short of using despite Brussels saying that Hungary has violated its laws.

Airlines have had to cancel hundreds of flights as airport staff went on strike, leaving tens of thousands of passengers in the lurch as the summer travel season gets under way.

Strike action by French air traffic controllers on Thursday has led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights, leaving tens of thousands of passengers in the lurch at the start of the summer season — one of the busiest times of the year for travel.

France's civil aviation authority DGAC said airlines needed to revise their schedules, including at Paris' Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport — one of Europe's busiest travel hubs.

A little after 10 am (0800 UTC/GMT) on Thursday, AFP news agency reported that flights were experiencing significant delays, including an average of 1.5 hours for arrivals and 1 hour for departures in Nice, France's third-largest airport.

CRIME Drone "narco sub" — equipped with Starlink antenna — seized for the first time in the Caribbean

Updated on: July 3, 2025 / 6:29 AM EDT / CBS/AFP

The Colombian navy on Wednesday announced its first seizure of an unmanned "narco sub" equipped with a Starlink antenna off its Caribbean coast.

The semisubmersible vessel was not carrying drugs, but the Colombian navy and Western security sources based in the region told AFP they believed it was a trial run by a cocaine trafficking cartel.

"It was being tested and was empty," a naval spokeswoman confirmed to AFP.

Manned semi-submersibles built in clandestine jungle shipyards have been used for decades to ferry cocaine north from Colombia, the world's biggest cocaine producer, to Central America or Mexico.

NEED TO KNOW

Arpineh Masihi, a Trump supporter and Iranian immigrant, was targeted by ICE and taken from her home on June 30

Her husband, Arthu Sahakyan, told a local news station that even though he misses Masihi, he still supports the Trump administration's efforts to vet Iranian nationals

When asked whether he would take his MAGA flag off their house while his wife is detained, Sahakyan replied, "No, the flag stands"

The Senate has passed a bill making Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the U.S.'s largest interior law enforcement agency with funding for Donald Trump's immigration enforcement agenda higher than most of the world's militaries, including Israel's.

Pending its passage in the House of Representatives, Trump's bill could mean a massive increase in ICE funding as part of an immigration enforcement agenda worth $150 billion over four years.

This figure is more than the annual military budget of Italy, which at $30.8 billion, is the world's 16th highest defense spender for this year according to tracker Global Fire Power.

It is also higher than military spending for Israel, ($30 billion), the Netherlands ($27 billion) and Brazil ($26.1 billion).