Hezbollah pagers explode across Lebanon as terrorists targeted in apparent attack
Multiple people were killed and hundreds of others were injured when handheld pagers exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday in an apparent targeting of Hezbollah members, according to Hezbollah officials.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that “the handheld pagers system was detonated using advanced technology, and dozens of injuries were reported” in Beirut’s southern suburbs and other areas. Lebanon’s health minister said at least eight people were killed and some 2,800 were wounded.
Among those injured when the pagers exploded included Iran’s ambassador in Lebanon, Iranian state media reported.
A security source in Lebanon told Reuters that the pagers were carried by members of Hezbollah. A Hezbollah official, speaking to the outlet on condition of anonymity, described the incident as a detonation that was the “biggest security breach” during the nearly year-long war with Israel. It wasn’t immediately clear who was responsible for the attack. While Hezbollah blamed Israel, the Israeli government has not commented.
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Photos and videos from Beirut’s southern suburbs circulating on social media and in local media showed people lying on the pavement with wounds on their hands or near their pants pockets.
“Several hundred” people were wounded in all in different parts of Lebanon when the incident happened, The Associated Press cited a Hezbollah official as saying.
In a statement obtained by Reuters, Hezbollah confirmed that the blasts killed at least two of its fighters and a girl.
The girl was the 9-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah fighter who was inside her parents’ home when the pagers exploded, the Times of Israel reported.
Hezbollah said the cause of the explosions was under investigation.
Hezbollah is an Islamic terrorist organization that has long had the backing of Iran.
The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between Lebanon and Israel. The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been clashing near-daily for more than 11 months against the backdrop of war between Israel and Hezbollah ally Hamas in Gaza.
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Hillary Clinton calls Trump a threat to the planet just one day after 2nd attempt on his life
A day after a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton said Monday that the former president posed a “danger to our country and the world.”
“The press is still not able to cover Trump the way that they should,” Clinton told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “They careen from one outrage to the next … I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for the press to have a consistent narrative about how dangerous Trump is. You know, the late great journalist Harry Evans, one time said that journalists should, you know, really try to achieve objectivity, and by that, he said, I mean they should cover the object.”
“Well, the object in this case is Donald Trump. His demagoguery, his danger to our country and the world. And stick with it.”
Clinton is promoting her latest memoir, “Something Lost, Something Gained,” which was described this year in part as “a fervent and persuasive warning to all American voters.” She went on to say Monday that the press was “merciless” when pointing out President Biden’s issues following his poor debate showing against Trump in June, and Trump was counting on public indifference to his controversies.
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“Americans need to understand that they have to take Trump both seriously and literally,” she said. “He has said what he wants to do. He and his allies with Project 2025, his desire to be a dictator, at least on day one, all of that is in the public record. And I believe that more Americans have to be, you know, willing to endure what frankly is discomforting and to some extent kind of painful, to take him at his word and to be outraged by what he represents.”
“We can’t go back and give this very dangerous man another chance to do harm to our country and the world,” she added.
Clinton’s interviews came on the heels of the second attempt to kill Trump in the past two months. Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was accused of pointing an AK-47 at Trump on Sunday afternoon while he was golfing at his club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Secret Service opened fire at him after spotting the rifle through a fence ahead of where Trump was playing; Routh fled but was arrested shortly afterward.
In July, another gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, wounding Trump in the ear, killing a rally-goer named Corey Comperatore, and critically injuring two others. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by law enforcement.
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Clinton added in her MSNBC interview she was “impressed” by Republicans who have spoken out against Trump returning to power.
The Harris campaign has touted the support of such figures as former Vice President Dick Cheney and other luminaries from previous Republican administrations and campaigns, although Trump still remains widely popular with Republicans after clinching a third straight nomination.
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“I do think many, many more people are being given the opportunity to reject what Trump offers, what he represents,” Clinton said. “Not as many, the race is still too close. The Electoral College is still the big hurdle that has to be overcome. But I am very hopeful, and even optimistic, that Americans who do not want to see a continuation of this politics of hate and division will reject Trump and maybe some Republicans who know that they can’t vote for Trump will end up voting for the Harris-Walz ticket as well.”
Charges against Diddy revealed in unsealed indictment following months-long probe
Authorities charged Sean “Diddy” Combs with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and more following a months-long investigation against the rapper.
Combs was arrested Monday by federal agents based on a sealed indictment, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York confirmed. The rapper was charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution in the indictment unsealed Tuesday.
“His spirits are good. He’s confident,” Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning. “He is dealing with this head on, the way he’s dealt with every challenge in his life. And he’s not guilty. He’s innocent of these charges. He’s going to plead not guilty, obviously. He’s going to fight this with all of his energy and all of his might and the full confidence of his lawyers. And I expect a long battle with a good result for Mr. Combs.”
“I’m going to fight like hell to get him released, and he should be released,” Agnifilo said. “With all that he’s done and coming here voluntarily.”
SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS ARRESTED FOLLOWING RAIDS, HUMAN TRAFFICKING INVESTIGATION
WATCH: SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS’ LAWYER SPEAKS AHEAD OF ARRAIGNMENT
Authorities claimed Diddy ran a criminal enterprise through his businesses, including Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Enterprises and Combs Global, among others. He used “violence, use of firearms, threats of violence, coercion, and verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse” to fulfill his sexual desires, according to the unsealed indictment obtained by Fox News Digital.
Combs and his employees would “intimidate, threaten, and lure female victims into Comb’s orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs allegedly then used force, threats of force, and coercion, to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that Combs referred to as, among other things, ‘Freak Offs.'”
The “Finna Get Loose” singer allegedly transported male sex workers across state and international lines for the purpose of engaging in non-consensual sex with his female victims.
Combs engaged his victims in “physical, emotional, and verbal abuse” in order to force them into participating in the “freak offs,” the court docs read. Diddy would also supply drugs to the sex workers and female victims to facilitate sexual encounters.
“Freak Offs were elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded,” authorities stated. Diddy often provided IV fluids to his victims following “freak offs” to recover from physical exertion and drug use, the indictment read.
Diddy allegedly maintained control of his victims by promising career opportunities or threatening to take away the same opportunities, withholding financial support, controlling the victim’s housing and more.
“Combs also used the sensitive, embarrassing, and incriminating recordings that he made during Freak Offs as collateral to ensure the continued obedience and silence of the victims,” according to the indictment.
During raids on Diddy’s home in March, authorities seized “freak off supplies” along with three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers, the court docs stated.
FOX NATION SPECIAL EXPLORES SEAN ‘DIDDY’ COMBS INVESTIGATION, RAIDS
The “I’ll Be Missing You” singer was arrested in a New York City hotel lobby, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.
Combs’ legal team slammed the charges as an “unjust prosecution” in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.
“Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal,” Marc Agnifilo said in a statement.
“To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges,” the statement continued. “Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
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Homeland Security agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami in connection to a federal human trafficking investigation on March 25, officials confirmed to Fox News Digital at the time.
Combs faces a mountain of legal claims after multiple women accused him of sexual assault beginning in November 2023. Cassie, legally known as Casandra Ventura, alleged she endured “over a decade” of Combs’ “violent behavior and disturbed demands” in a lawsuit. Combs and his ex-girlfriend settled the matter a day later outside of court.
Three more women came forward with claims just before New York’s Adult Survivors Act expired in December.
Combs was also sued by music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones in February. Jones accused the rapper of forcing him to perform sexual acts with prostitutes in his lawsuit obtained by Fox News Digital.
He faces a handful of additional sexual abuse lawsuits, all of which he has denied.
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Amid his legal troubles, Combs stepped down as chairman of his cable network Revolt in November.
“This decision helps to ensure that Revolt remains steadfastly focused on our mission to create meaningful content for the culture and amplify the voices of all Black people throughout this country and African diaspora,” the network said in a statement.
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GOP governor takes aggressive action against bloodthirsty Venezuelan street gang
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced new actions the Lonestar state is taking against Tren de Aragua — a violent Venezuelan gang that has been causing havoc in multiple states across the United States.
Abbott announced that he is declaring the gang a foreign terrorist organization and establishing a database to verify if arrests being made are TdA members or not.
“We will bring the full weight of the government against the TdA,” Abbott said. “By declaring TdA a foreign terrorist organization, Texas will use the courts to halt their operations, use civil asset forfeiture to take the property and use enhanced criminal penalties to keep them in jail behind bars for longer periods of time.”
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The gang is believed to have originated in Venezuelan prisons and moved north over the last decade. But its reputation within the U.S. has grown this year, in part due to a number of high-profile crimes linked to the gang, with many believed to have arrived by coming across the southern border as part of the sharp increase in migration in recent years.
Border officials told Fox recently they are targeting the gang as a priority, and officials in Dallas told Fox that they have seen gang activity in the north Dallas area linked to TdA. The gang hit the headlines over reports of a takeover of apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado.
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Fox News Digital reported in July that TdA members have been given a “green light” to fire on or attack law enforcement in Denver. The Biden administration designated the group a “significant transnational criminal organization” in July and offered up to $12 million for information leading to the arrest of three of its leaders.
Abbott said that the database being created would look at common characteristics of gang members, including tattoos, scars, types of crime and methods of operation.
Abbott had already launched a statewide operation to deter and disrupt the gang, and said that now there are nine anti-gang centers across the state, with more than $100 million in funding. Recently, a hotel in El Paso where TdA were active has been shut down.
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He also noted more than 100 gang members were arrested during a riot at the U.S.-Mexico border near El Paso earlier this year. On Tuesday, he said that strike teams were being formed to surge resources to areas where gang members are believed to be working.
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“Our goal among law enforcement in the state of Texas is to defend our state from the growing threat of TdA,” he said. “We are not going to allow them to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens. Texas is a law and order state, and I will ensure that law enforcement has every tool they need to keep our community safe.”
Communist regime’s strategic move that threatens to cripple America’s military defense
China slapped new export controls on a batch of minerals such as antimony – vital for the U.S. defense industry as a flame-retardant component used in machine bearings – in a move that could send prices in the defense sector soaring.
The little-known metal antimony is used in ammunition, infrared missiles, nuclear weapons and night vision goggles, as well as batteries and photovoltaic equipment. China produced nearly half of the world’s antimony last year.
The limits, which kicked in on Sunday, apply to six antimony-related products, including antimony ore, antimony metals and antimony oxide.
The U.S. consumed some 22,000 tons of antimony last year. China accounted for 63% of U.S. imports of antimony metal and oxide last year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The next largest supplier, Belgium, offered some 8%.
The material is being restricted “in order to safeguard national security and interests, and fulfill international obligations such as non-proliferation,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
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The U.S. and other nations have been scrambling to scale back their reliance on China for key materials for the defense and energy sectors. Yet still, China is the leading import source for 25 essential minerals, including tungsten, germanium, magnesium, barite, antimony, most rare earths, indium, graphite, gallium, and arsenic.
It’s just the latest in a set of curbs on exports introduced over the past year.
In December, China banned the export of technology to make rare earth magnets, which followed another ban on exporting technology to extract and separate critical materials.
Last year, it slapped export controls on gallium, germanium and graphite in part of a retaliatory trade war after the U.S. limited exports on advanced semiconductor chips to China.
“In the first Cold War against the Soviet Union, we were aligned against the Soviet Union with not importing national security-sensitive things,” said Rob Greenway, a former National Security Council (NSC) official. “We were a net exporter across the board. Since we’ve become a net importer across the board, we have massive vulnerabilities, and our regulatory structures have not in any way kept pace with that.”
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“Our partners – Japan, South Korea, Scandinavian countries, Central American countries – they’re enormously frustrated, because not only do they have the same problem, but we’re not making it easier for them,” Greenway, now a director at the Allison Center for National Security, went on. “In some cases, we’re making it easier for China. We’re taxing Taiwan’s exports, including semiconductors, more than we are Chinese exports.”
Antimony prices have nearly doubled to a record $22,750 per ton this year and export controls are expected to drive them even higher.
The new rules require sellers to apply for a sign-off from the Chinese government through a license to sell any related dual-use civilian and military materials and technology, a process which typically takes close to three months.
“China’s new restrictions on antimony – which is used in everything from night vision goggles to nuclear weapons to tanks – will require exporters to apply for certain licenses that the Chinese Communist Party could delay or refuse outright,” said Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va. Wittman leads a working group on critical minerals policy in Congress.
“As the largest producer and processor of antimony, the CCP is using the same playbook as it did for gallium and germanium to demonstrate its market dominance and put Western economies at risk – this is why we must diversify our critical mineral supply chains away from China.”
One U.S.-based company, Perpetua Resources, is looking to produce domestic antimony with support from the Pentagon and the U.S. Export-Import Bank. It’s run into opposition from environmental groups and its first production was slated for 2028, should it obtain permits later this year.
But China’s restrictions have prompted the company to look for ways to speed up production.
“We are looking at things that we can do during construction to get antimony out the door sooner for some of these strategic needs,” Jon Cherry, Perpetua’s CEO, told Reuters.
“The (US) Department of Defense is aware of the critical nature of antimony and the short supply available. We’ve been hearing from a lot of different sources about the lack of supply for antimony, that the market is very tight and getting tighter daily.”
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In a less closely watched move, China is also limiting exports on superabrasive materials, industrial diamonds with the highest level of hardness, and the machines that make them. Such materials are used across industries in the U.S. and are essential in the defense and energy sectors.
“It really, truly has the ability to crater the U.S. economy. This is really terrifying,” said Nazak Nikakhtar, a former senior Commerce Department official.
“It’s not a glamorous sector, but there is a national security obligation to alert the world to it – to build capacity in the United States [of superabrasives] to support the defense industrial base will take two to three years.”
‘Migrant influencer’ who bragged about handouts on TikTok hit with reality check
The illegal migrant from Venezuela who went viral on social media for mocking America and encouraging squatting has been ordered to leave the U.S., according to an exclusive report by the New York Post.
Homeland Security sources told the Post that an Ohio-based judge ordered Leonel Moreno, 27, to be deported from the country on September 9.
Moreno was initially arrested in March for not showing up to required check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He had illegally crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, on April 23, 2022.
Whether or not Moreno will actually be deported is up in the air, according to the Post. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s administration recently stopped accepting flights of migrants, complicating the deportation process.
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Moreno became infamous earlier in 2024 because of his inflammatory TikTok videos. In one clip, he flaunted a stack of cash and bragged about not working. He also also made fun of migrants who work in landscaping, construction and cleaning.
“I didn’t cross the Rio Grande to work like a slave,” Moreno reportedly said in Spanish. “I came to the U.S. to mark my territory.”
Moreno also claimed that he made $1,000 a week on TikTok, in addition to his family being given $350 a week in government handouts. He also encouraged fellow migrants to squat in abandoned homes, according to TikTok screenshots.
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After his TikTok account – which amassed over half a million followers – was removed earlier this year, Moreno bragged about the amount of money he earned on Facebook and Instagram.
“Yes, they closed my TikTok account, but I keep earning on Facebook and on Instagram,” the migrant reportedly said in Spanish. “I won’t earn the same, but I am going to get my TikTok account back. I am going to keep earning money.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to ICE for additional information.
Hip-hop producer’s blunt reaction to celebrities making political endorsements
Prolific music producer Pharrell Williams said in a new interview that he is “annoyed” by famous endorsements in the wake of celebrities taking a stance on the election.
“I don’t do politics. In fact, I get annoyed sometimes when I see celebrities trying to tell you [who to vote for],” Williams said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Pop star Taylor Swift dominated headlines last week when she endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who has a host of other A-list supporters for her 2024 campaign.
Swift’s endorsement immediately followed the first debate between Harris and former President Trump.
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Williams responded to The Hollywood Reporter asking if he would allow presidential candidates to use his music in their campaigns.
“There are celebrities that I respect that have an opinion, but not all of them,” he said. “I’m one of them people [who says], ‘What the heck? Shut up. Nobody asked you.’”
“When people get out there and get self-righteous and they roll up their sleeves and s—, and they are out there walking around with a placard: ‘Shut up!’ So, no, I would rather stay out of the way, and obviously, I’m going to vote how I’m going to vote. I care about my people and I care about the country, but I feel there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, and I’m really about the action.”
Williams’ comments came after Trump’s political campaign was hit with lawsuits for copyright infringement from prominent entertainers.
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Most recently, The White Stripes followed through with a threat of legal action after a Trump aide posted a video featuring one of the band’s songs. Last month, Margo Martin, Trump’s deputy director of communications, posted a video montage of Trump traveling to a rally with White Stripes song “Seven Nation Army” playing as he boarded the plane.
The band filed a copyright infringement lawsuit, accusing the campaign of “flagrant misappropriation” of its hit song.
The suit was filed last week in the Southern district of New York.
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Other musicians who opposed the Trump campaign for using their music include Isaac Hayes, Mick Jagger, Lorde, Sia, Blondie, Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Lionel Richie, Elvis Costello, Keith Richards, Steven Tyler and Rosanne Cash.