Dictator fumes as North Korean naval destroyer launch ends in embarrassment

North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un was left fuming this week when he attended the botched launch of a new 5,000-ton naval destroyer.

The launch, at the northeastern port of Chongjin, was intended to tout the communist nation’s military advancement, but ended in embarrassment for Kim after the ship slid off a ramp and became stuck, state media reported.

The flatcar failed to move alongside the ship, throwing it off balance and crushing parts of the ship’s bottom, North Korean news agency KCNA reported. Its stern slid down the launch slipway, while its bow section failed to leave the ramp.

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The total extent of the damage was unclear and it isn’t known if there were any injuries.

North Korea did not release photos from the scene, although satellite imagery released by South Korea on Thursday indicated that the ship was lying on its side in the water after the failed launch.

According to KCNA, Kim, who was present at the ceremony on Wednesday, blamed military officials, scientists and shipyard operators for a “serious accident and criminal act caused by absolute carelessness, irresponsibility and unscientific empiricism.” 

Kim warned that the errors caused by the “irresponsibility of the relevant officials” would need to be investigated at a ruling Workers’ Party meeting slated for late June.

He said that restoring the destroyer before the meeting was directly related to the prestige of the state and the restoration should be completed unconditionally.

Moon Keun-sik, a navy expert who teaches at Seoul’s Hanyang University, said that despite the embarrassment, Kim still wanted to publicly report on the mishap. 

“It’s a shameful thing, but the reason why North Korea disclosed the incident is it wants to show it’s speeding up the modernization of its navy forces and expresses its confidence that it can eventually build,” he told The Associated Press. 

Moon suspected that the incident likely happened because North Korean workers aren’t yet familiar with such a large warship and had been rushed to put it in the water.

It was the second naval destroyer the secretive nation launched in a month after Kim attended the successful launch of another 5,000-ton destroyer from Nampo, a port on the west coast of North Korea. Kim later watched missiles fired from the ship, with experts saying that it appeared to have been built with Russian technology.

Experts said that both ships are likely designed to carry weapons systems including nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles.

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A report by the North Korea-focused 38 North website assessed last week that the destroyer in Chongjin was being prepared to be launched sideways from the quay, a method that has rarely been used in North Korea. The report said the destroyer launched in Nampo, in contrast, used a floating dry dock.

Kim has framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the U.S. and South Korea, which have been expanding joint military exercises in response to the North’s advancing nuclear program.

In March, Kim oversaw tests of newly developed AI-powered suicide drones and called for their increased production. He was seen walking with aides on what appeared to be an unmanned surveillance aircraft that resembled the U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude surveillance aircraft parked on the tarmac in the background.

Other images showed a fixed-wing drone zeroing in on a tank-shaped target then exploding in flames.

Kim has said that unmanned control and AI capability must be the top priorities in modern arms development.

Kim was also seen walking to a large aircraft with four engines and a radar dome mounted on the fuselage. Analysts have previously reported that North Korea was converting the Russian-made Il-76 cargo aircraft for an early-warning role to help augment the North’s existing land-based radar systems, which are sometimes limited by the peninsula’s mountainous terrain, London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies said in a report in September.

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North Korea also revealed this year that it has a nuclear-powered submarine under construction, a weapons system that could pose a major security threat to South Korea and the U.S.

Meanwhile, North Korea has sent between 11,000 and 15,000 military personnel to fight alongside Russia in the war against Ukraine in its first involvement in a large-scale conflict since the 1950-53 Korean War. 

The South Korean military assessed that around 4,700 of them have been killed or wounded.

Supreme Court upholds Trump’s removal of Biden-appointed federal board members

The Supreme Court upheld President Donald Trump’s removal of two Democratic appointees from federal boards, handing the administration a legal victory and settling a high-stakes dispute over the president’s power to fire agency officials.

The Thursday ruling comes after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts agreed to temporarily halt the reinstatement of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member Gwynne Wilcox and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) member Cathy Harris, two Democrat appointees who were abruptly terminated by the Trump administration this year. 

Both had challenged their terminations as “unlawful” in separate lawsuits filed in D.C. federal court.

However, the high court suggested that it could block attempts to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who, according to Trump, has complained has not cut interest rates fast enough. 

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The issue confronting the justices was whether the board members, both appointed by President Joe Biden, can stay in their jobs while the larger fight continues over what to do with a 90-year-old Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey’s Executor, in which the court unanimously ruled that presidents cannot fire independent board members without cause.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented. 

“Not since the 1950s (or even before) has a President, without a legitimate reason, tried to remove an officer from a classic independent agency,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Kagan wrote that her colleagues were telegraphing what would happen. 

“The impatience to get on with things—to now hand the President the most unitary, meaning also the most subservient, administration since Herbert Hoover (and maybe ever)—must reveal how that eventual decision will go,” she wrote.

Lawyers for the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to either keep Wilcox and Harris off the job while the case moves through the lower courts, or to resolve the issue directly. They asked the justices to grant certiorari before judgment – a fast-track procedure the court uses occasionally to bypass the appeals process in cases of significant national importance.

They urged that Wilcox and Harris not be reinstated to their positions, arguing in their reply brief that the “costs of such reinstatements are immense.”

They argued that keeping both Wilcox and Harris in place would “entrust” the president’s powers “for the months or years that it could take the courts to resolve this litigation,” something they said “would manifestly cause irreparable harm to the President and to the separation of powers.”

“The President would lose control of critical parts of the Executive Branch for a significant portion of his term, and he would likely have to spend further months voiding actions taken by improperly reinstated agency leaders.”

In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit voted 7–4 to restore Wilcox and Harris to their respective boards, citing Supreme Court precedent in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States and Wiener v. United States – landmark rulings that upheld limits on the president’s power to remove members of independent federal agencies.

The majority noted that the Supreme Court has never overturned the decades-old precedent upholding removal protections for members of independent, multimember adjudicatory boards – such as the NLRB and MSPB – and said that precedent supported reinstating Wilcox and Harris.

It also rejected the Trump administration’s request for an administrative stay, which would have allowed their removals to remain in place while the challenge proceeds in court. 

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly told the courts of appeals to follow extant Supreme Court precedent unless and until that Court itself changes it or overturns it,” judges noted in their opinion. 

The ruling would have temporarily returned Harris and Wilcox to their posts – but the victory was short-lived. The Trump administration quickly appealed to the Supreme Court, which granted an emergency administrative stay blocking their reinstatement.

In their own Supreme Court filings, lawyers for Wilcox and Harris argued that the court should reinstate them to their roles on their respective boards until a federal appeals court can consider the matter.

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Both Wilcox and Harris opposed the administration’s effort to fast-track the case, warning against skipping the normal appeals process and rushing arguments. “Rushing such important matters risks making mistakes and destabilizing other areas of the law,” Harris’s lawyers told the Supreme Court this week.

Wilcox, the NLRB member, echoed this argument in her own brief to the high court. 

Counsel for Wilcox cited the potential harm in removing her from the three-member NLRB panel – which they argued in their filing could bring “an immediate and indefinite halt to the NLRB’s critical work of adjudicating labor-relations disputes.”

“The President’s choice to instead remove Ms. Wilcox does not bring the Board closer in line with his preferred policies; it prevents the agency from carrying out its congressionally mandated duties at all,” they said.

Harris and Wilcox’s cases are among several legal challenges attempting to clearly define the executive’s power. 

Hampton Dellinger, a Biden appointee previously tapped to head the Office of Special Counsel, sued the Trump administration over his termination. Dellinger filed suit in D.C. district court after his Feb. 7 firing.

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He had maintained the argument that, by law, he could only be dismissed from his position for job performance problems, which were not cited in an email dismissing him from his post.

Dellinger dropped his suit against the administration after the D.C. appellate court issued an unsigned order siding with the Trump administration.

The Justice Department, for its part, said in February a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that it was seeking to overturn Humphrey’s Executor.

Trump admin approves ‘historic’ waivers to ban junk food from food stamp programs

Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said during a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) event Thursday that the Trump administration is making history with its approval of numerous waivers that will eliminate junk food from food stamp programs. 

Rollins was in Nebraska on Monday to sign the first alongside Republican Gov. Jim Pillen. She has also signed a waiver for Indiana and Iowa, “with half-a-dozen more coming down the line,” she said.   

“We are on track to sign multiples of snap waivers to get junk food and sugary drinks out of our food stamp system,” Rollins said at the Thursday afternoon event, centering around the release of a 69-page report from the Trump administration’s MAHA Commission on how to effect change around childhood chronic disease. 

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“That has never happened before under Republican or Democrat administrations,” Rollins added. “We have never made that happen before. So I am so proud and so grateful.”

On average, 42 million low-income Americans receive food stamp assistance each month, according to the MAHA report released at Thursday’s event. It added that 1 in 5 American children under 17 receive SNAP benefits.

With Nebraska’s waiver, it became the first state in the nation to bar recipients of federal food stamp programs from using the money to buy junk food, soda and other high-sugar items. The exemption will begin as a two-year pilot program, local media reported.

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Other GOP-led states, including Texas and West Virginia, have applied for this waiver.

“SNAP was created to increase access to nutritious food; however, many SNAP purchases are for food with little to no nutritious value,” Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott wrote in a letter to Rollins requesting a waiver last week. 

“Under the Trump administration, for the first time since the program was authorized, states can take steps to eliminate the opportunity to buy junk food with SNAP benefits and assure that taxpayer dollars are used only to purchase healthy, nutritious food.”

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West Virginia’s Governor Patrick Morrisey, one of the leaders requesting a waiver, has also been spearheading other MAHA efforts in his state. In March, Morrisey signed House Bill 2354 into law, which made it the first state in the nation to begin prohibiting certain synthetic dyes and additives used in food items sold in the state.

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Israeli ambassador condemns leaders ‘fueling’ antisemitism after deadly DC shooting

Following the brutal shooting of a young couple outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., the Israeli ambassador to the U.S. is calling attention to a “very important” larger issue both in America and on the global stage.

Two Israeli Embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were shot while leaving a Jewish event, after which the suspected shooter,  identified the shooter as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, yelled, “Free, free Palestine!” and security officers apprehended him.

The chant echoed those slogans proclaimed at protests across American college campuses, which Amb. Yechiel Leiter labeled “an eliminationist demand for the elimination of Israel” on “Special Report” Thursday.

“The big picture is very important for us to understand,” the Israeli ambassador to the United States said. “‘Free, free Palestine’ is actually what he said. ‘Free, free Palestine’ is part of the chant that was heard across universities all across the country, and it included the chant, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ which is basically an eliminationist demand for the elimination of Israel. That’s what’s going on. Hamas tried to do on October 7.”

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Leiter argued that Rodriguez’s use of the “Free, free Palestine!” chant shows he allegedly believed “he’s going to implement it, the eliminationist policy regarding Israel, by shooting Jews here in Washington.”

Rodriguez has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, murder of a foreign official, causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

The shooting comes as tensions over Israel’s operations in the Gaza Strip have drastically escalated this week amid growing humanitarian concerns, though it is not the first time since the war broke out following the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that its D.C. embassy has been a target.

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Pro-Palestinian sentiment has grown in the United States, as a result of the ongoing war in Israel instigated by the Oct. 7 attacks. While the Trump administration has been cracking down on antisemitism, particularly on college campuses, Leiter criticized world leaders for “fueling” anti-Israel sentiment. 

“If we’re talking about the big picture, the outrage here is that we have international leaders like the president of France, Macron, who’s trying to press for an immediate recognition of a Palestinian state, as if the response to October 7 should be to call it Palestine Liberation Day,” Leiter told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier.

“So he’s fueling these chants of the likes of this Elias Rodriguez.”

Although charges were announced less than 24 hours after the crime occurred, the crime will be investigated as a hate crime and act of terrorism. Interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Jeanine Pirro noted that additional charges may come as the evidence warrants during a press conference Thursday. 

Rodriguez appeared in court on Thursday afternoon, where he had an attorney appointed. The judge advised him that he could be punished by life or death.

Pirro said Rodriguez waived his right to a detention hearing and conceded to detention. A preliminary hearing is set for 1 p.m. on June 18.

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Darin Ruf sues Reds after metal tarp roller injury ended his MLB career

An ex-Major League Baseball player is blaming a former opponent for his career-ending injury.

Darin Ruf played first base for the Milwaukee Brewers June 2, 2023, in a game against the NL Central rival Cincinnati Reds. Little did he know it would be the final game of his career.

In the third inning, Ruf was chasing a pop-up in foul territory when his knee crashed into the end of the field tarp roller. Ruf badly cut his knee and limped off the field with the help of a trainer.

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Ruf’s complaint says the end of the tarp roller was made of sharp metal and had no protective cushioning or cap. The TV broadcast of the game said there was a “significant hunk of metal … that doesn’t give very much.”

Ruf went on the 60-day injured list and never played in the major leagues again.

His initial injury, aside from the laceration, was ruled a non-displaced fracture of his patella. But, according to Ruf’s complaint, he suffered “permanent and substantial deformities to his knee.” 

“This didn’t need to happen,” Ruf said in a statement. “I wish it didn’t happen. Players shouldn’t have to worry about hidden hazards like that on a major league field.”

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“This was an obvious and avoidable risk,” Tad Thomas, Ruf’s attorney, said in a release announcing the lawsuit. “There are basic safety protocols every MLB team should follow. Leaving an unpadded metal roller on the edge of the field is inexcusable.”

The Reds did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The situation is similar to Dustin Fowler’s. In his major league debut in 2017, he injured a knee in Chicago after running into an electrical box while chasing down a pop fly. Fowler, who would have led off the next inning for his first plate appearance in the majors, sued the White Sox for negligence. 

The Yankees traded him roughly a month after the injury for Sonny Gray, and Fowler’s first MLB hit came against Gray the next year.

Ruf, 38, played in the majors from 2012 to 2023 with the Philadelphia Phillies (2012-16), San Francisco Giants (2020-22, 2023), New York Mets (2022) and Brewers (2023). He batted .239 with a .329 on-base percentage, 67 homers and 205 RBI in 582 career games.

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At the time of the injury, Ruf was playing in his 11th game with the Brewers after playing in nine games in his second stint with the Giants. He had been designated for assignment by San Francisco before joining Milwaukee.

Texas road construction unearths ‘colossal’ prehistoric animal remains

A recent excavation in Texas yielded some “colossal creatures,” according to local officials – and archaeologists are hopeful more will be uncovered soon.

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced the discovery in a recent press release. In a statement, officials said the excavation took place in Lubbock during the environmental review for Loop 88, a proposed state highway.

During the archaeological survey, diggers uncovered ancient bones dating back to prehistoric times. The remains belonged to megafauna, which are large mammals.

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Chris Ringstaff, a project planner with TxDOT’s environmental affairs division, said that megafauna bones “[are] not unusual in the region.”

Ringstaff also noted that at least one giant ground sloth was identified, thanks to its distinctive tooth.

“Whether all the bones are giant ground sloth or there are different animals such as mammoth or mastodon, we’re not sure,” he said.

“Paleontologists will give us positive identification.”

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“We’re here to get the road built, but who doesn’t love digging up big ol’ animals?” Ringstaff added.

TxDOT noted that the Lone Star State is home to many dried-out lakes called playas, which date back to the Ice Age.

“In prehistoric times, animals and humans used playas as water sources and these sites can sometimes contain evidence of human activity,” the press release noted.

Archaeologists are still searching for small artifacts. They’re also using dating techniques to determine the age of the remains. 

If any proof of human settlement is found, the project will be temporarily halted.

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“Should the site reveal human activity with megafauna from the Ice Age, it would be [the] first of its kind for a TxDOT project,” the statement said.

Several prehistoric bones are found in the U.S. every year. 

Last summer, archaeologists in Iowa unearthed a 13,000-year-old mastodon skull.

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Later in 2024, a New York homeowner found a complete mastodon jaw in his Scotchtown backyard.

Sheriff rocked by allegations from New Orleans DA after massive inmate jail break

The Orleans Parish district attorney torched the county’s sheriff for failing to order a crime scene investigation after 10 inmates escaped from the New Orleans prison on Friday.

District Attorney Jason Williams said in a Thursday afternoon press conference that he learned from New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick that Sheriff Susan Hutson never requested a formal crime scene investigation from the jail cell the 10 inmates used to escape. 

“Time is also of the essence when trying to get good DNA samples or collect fingerprints to make sure those areas are not molested or destroyed in any way,” he told the media. “So I am deeply concerned that there was not an immediate request by the sheriff to our local crime lab to get in there and examine, document, preserve and collect all of the forensic evidence that was available there so that we could already have it tested.”

He has also demanded that the sheriff’s office preserve and turn over all surveillance footage from the jail from April 1 until Wednesday, as well as any other pertinent investigatory materials. 

It has been nearly a week since 10 inmates, some wanted for violent crimes like murder, brazenly escaped from their cell and over the jail’s fence into the New Orleans community. They taunted authorities on the way out with written messages on the cell wall, including one that read, “To easy LOL.”

Five of those inmates, including Derrick Groves, who is a convicted killer of four people, are still on the loose. 

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Williams even suggested that members of the sheriff’s department could be under investigation in the escape. 

“We’ve also asked, we’ve sent letters out to the sheriff asking that she and all members of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office and any maintenance workers or crew members submit to voluntary samples of DNA, and provide fingerprints so that they can be included or excluded from this investigation,” he said. 

He also said that if the sheriff’s office, which runs the jail, had followed protocol, it is likely that all 10 fugitives would have been captured by now. 

“Time is of the essence in terms of catching escaped fugitives,” Williams said. “If they escape at 12:30 [a.m.], immediately upon awareness of that, we need to make sure that the public is notified, the media is notified, because if that had happened, in all likelihood, all 10 of these individuals would be in custody by now.” 

Since a proper inquiry was never made, members of the NOPD crime lab and Williams himself on Thursday scoured the jail cell, the hole behind the removed toilet and the corridor through which the inmates escaped, in an attempt to collect evidence. 

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He described his Thursday visit to the crime scene as “very unusual.”

“But we have to make sure that we are focusing on this crime scene, the destruction of those bars, of that toilet, who could have assisted these individuals in getting out, whether they were in a uniform or not in a uniform,” said Williams. “And obviously fingerprints, DNA, these pieces of evidence tell a story. And that’s the type of evidence that a jury is going to be looking for when it’s time to hold somebody accountable. And we need to make sure we’re holding the right people accountable.”

Hutson earlier this week suspended her campaign for re-election as sheriff, saying her priority was to focus solely on catching the fugitives. 

One person from inside the jail has already been charged with aiding the inmates in the escape. 

Sterling Williams, 33, who was an employee of the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of principal to simple escape and one count of malfeasance in office for allegedly turning off the water in the cell from which the escapees fled. He is being held on $1.1 million bond, $100,000 per count, in the Plaquemines Parish Jail. 

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On Wednesday, the Louisiana State Police (LSP) announced that two more people were arrested for aiding the inmates after they escaped.

Cortnie Harris, 32, of New Orleans and 38-year-old Corvanntay Baptiste of Slidell were arrested for assisting the fugitives. They are also being held at the Plaquemines County Jail.

On Thursday afternoon, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced on X that Harris’ bond was set at $2.5 million and Baptiste’s at $1 million.

“You will be arrested and prosecuted if you assist these escapees in any way,” she warned in the post.

Sources close to the investigation told Fox News that Baptiste was Corey Boyd‘s girlfriend. She allegedly did not cooperate with the police and said she did not participate in the escape. Boyd was captured by LSP on Tuesday night. 

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Harris, who is Leo Tate’s girlfriend, allegedly admitted to her role in aiding the escapees, and gave a confession, according to the sources. Tate is still on the run.

Boyd, 19, who was facing charges of second-degree murder before the escape, was the latest inmate captured. He was taken into custody on Tuesday night. 

Orthopedic surgeon dies during Grand Canyon hike, remembered as ‘amazing man’

The National Park Service recently identified a hiker who died in the Grand Canyon last week as a beloved 74-year-old Washington state doctor.

Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center staff received a report on May 15 of an unresponsive hiker on the North Kaibab Trail, about half a mile below the North Kaibab Trailhead.

Dr. Dennis Smith, of Olympia, Washington, was attempting a rim-to-rim hike from the South Rim to the North Rim when authorities and friends said he collapsed on the trail.

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Though there is limited cell phone service in the canyon, the incident happened close enough to the top that they were able to call for a park service helicopter. Medics restarted his heart, but it later stopped again, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

His cause of death is under investigation by the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office, according to the park service.

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Fellow doctor, Tom Helpenstell, who worked with Smith for more than 30 years, told Fox News Digital the pair ran across the canyon when it was hotter, and he believes it was a “freak” accident.

“I think it was 100 degrees or close to it, but he’s really good about hydrating,” Helpenstell said. “He’s always drinking fluids. … He’s way too smart to be pushing beyond his limits. I think this was just a freak thing.”

After doing a short stint in the Navy, Smith, a former family practice doctor, became an orthopedic surgeon. He then started his own practice, Olympia Orthopaedic Associates, where he met Helpenstell in 1994.

“We worked together in the same office and assisted each other every Tuesday in surgeries for 30 years,” Helpenstell said. “He and I have run across the Grand Canyon three times, doing Ultra Trail-type running. Probably two years ago, he decided not to do running [anymore], so he was hiking with a group out of Tucson, Arizona, where he spends the winters.”

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Before deciding not to keep running, the pair ran up Mount Whitney together, completed full Iron Man competitions and Olympic-distance triathlons together, and climbed Mount Rainier.

“He’s super active, super fit,” Helpenstell said. “This was not even a run, this was a hike. I don’t want to downplay it. Grand Canyon’s a big day, for sure, but this was completely out of the blue.”

In addition to Smith’s athletic feats, Helpenstell said he was highly respected in his community for his work in general orthopedics, where he did trauma, hip and knee replacements. 

“He would jump in and take care of anyone at any time. Really, really great,” Helpenstell said. “Within the surgeon community, we’re the carpenters. … Even when he retired from his regular work [in 2021], he stayed on and took call for us and stayed up at night doing cases. He kept his hand in it, until just about a year and a half or two ago. He was an amazing man.”

“He read like crazy,” Helpenstell said. “He was like an encyclopedia. We would always joke, we don’t need Google, we have Dennis. He was really into health and nutrition, and what diets are the right ones to take, and what supplements. I mean, the guy was crazy about staying healthy. He had switched to playing pickleball because he thought it would make his brain learn new things, which would keep him from getting Alzheimer’s or anything like that. He was more focused than anyone I know about staying healthy and living long, which makes this hard.”

Smith leaves behind his wife, Evelyn, who would have celebrated their 50th anniversary on Sunday, and four children. 

He also leaves behind numerous grandchildren who he enjoyed hiking and running with.

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The NPS urged all visitors to Grand Canyon National Park, particularly those planning to hike or backpack in the inner canyon, to prepare for extreme heat.

Park rangers strongly advise against hiking in the inner canyon during the hottest part of the day, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Hikers and backpackers attempting rigorous distances, such as rim to rim, through the inner canyon, are encouraged to be self-reliant to prevent emergency situations for themselves and responders. 

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“Be aware that efforts to assist hikers may be delayed due to limited staff, the number of rescue calls, and employee safety requirements,” according to the park service.