Ukraine was never promised NATO membership as part of any potential settlement of its conflict with Russia, the military bloc’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, has said. He made the remarks in an interview with the broadcaster MI Ukraina while on a surprise trip to Ukraine on Tuesday.
Rutte said that while Kiev’s Western backers have stated Ukraine would “one day” become a member of NATO, “no one promised Ukraine that NATO membership would be part of the peace agreement.”
Russia has long cited Kiev’s ambitions to join NATO, which Moscow views as an overtly hostile bloc, as one of the reasons for launching its military operation in 2022.
Ukrainian neutrality remains a key demand from the Kremlin for reaching a peace deal, along with demilitarization, denazification, and recognition of the territorial realities on the ground. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, however, has insisted that membership or “NATO-like security guarantees” be included in any agreement.
Dominique Alexander, a self-described minister and activist with a violent history, has thrown his weight behind Karmelo Anthony, the young teen accused of fatally stabbing fellow teen Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet.
Alexander recently celebrated Anthony’s release on bond via an X post, stating, “Karmelo Anthony is SAFE at home,” framing it as a community victory. However, Alexander’s extensive criminal history raises questions about his credibility as an advocate.
In 2009, Alexander was arrested for causing serious bodily injury to a 2-year-old child, resulting in a subdural hemorrhage and retinal hemorrhages, injuries doctors attributed to abusive head trauma, according to the Dallas Observer.
Alexander admitted to shaking the child but claimed the injuries were accidental. He faced a first-degree felony charge but avoided significant jail time through plea deals and probation.
In 2016, he was sentenced to five years for probation violations, though he served only eight days, according to The Dallas Express.
In a sign of just how depraved society has become, the case immediately became a racial issue despite Anthony, who is black, being the one who allegedly murdered Metcalf. Donations poured into Anthony’s GoFundMe campaign for his “legal defense,” and posts like this were made calling for “justice,” not for the boy who was killed, but for the alleged killer.
Karmelo Anthony is SAFE at home.
This moment is a reminder that a community united can never be divided.
The journey ahead is long, but today—we celebrate a victory for justice, for family, and for the power of people coming together to protect our youth.
“They’re not poor people. That’s for sure,” one resident said.
The Texas teen accused of stabbing Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet earlier in the month is reportedly holed up in a $900,000 home with his family that they are renting for an estimated $3,500 per month.
According to the Daily Mail, 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony and his family are renting the Frisco home that lies within an exclusive gated community. Anthony was released on a $250,000 bond after it was reduced from $1 million, and is under house arrest. He has to wear an ankle monitor as part of the terms of his release.
The Daily Mail went to the home, seeing a white Suburban, a black Acura, and another sedan in the driveway. One resident of the neighborhood said the family had just purchased a new car. “He got a new car. If you look at the license plate, it’s got a paper tag and it says it expires June 4,” the resident said.
Residents were unaware that the Anthonys lived in the neighborhood until Karmelo Anthony came home from jail on Monday. The “Richwoods” gated community is located within walking distance of Centennial High School, which Anthony attends.
One resident and mother of the neighborhood told the outlet of Anthony being in the neighborhood, “Not good. Not good. I don’t think he should be out. I don’t understand why he had a knife? My kids were in track. Your tents, for you school, you don’t sit under another school’s tent. That is NOT done because everyone leaves their stuff there while they’re out on events.”
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is vowing to travel to El Salvador to negotiate the release of a wrongly deported man after the Trump administration ignored a Supreme Court ruling to facilitate his return to the U.S.
In a letter sent to the El Salvadorian Ambassador on April 13 before Trump’s tête-à-tête with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Van Hollen requested a meeting with Bukele during his U.S. visit to discuss “the illegal detention of [his] constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” after the Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to unanimously uphold U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’s ruling that he was wrongly deported and that the U.S. government was responsible for bringing him home.
(It’s unclear if Van Hollen ever got to meet with Bukele.)
Two members of House Democratic leadership are trying to send an official congressional delegation to the El Salvadorian prison where the Trump administration is sending deportees, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Dozens of House Democrats have privately expressed interest in participating in such a trip to protest the Trump administration’s deportation policies, sources tell Axios.
But while lawmakers could travel to the Central American country informally, a Republican committee chair’s approval is needed to send an official congressional delegation, or CODEL.
A CODEL would provide the members with crucial oversight powers and security resources.
The wife of Kilmar Garcia, a man who was deported from Maryland to his native El Salvador in March 14, has spoken out publicly to ask that he be returned to the US and their family. A GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign has raised over $165,000. What Jenniefer Vasquez did not mention, however, is that she petitioned for a domestic violence protective order against him in 2021.
Revealing the information about the protective order in a post, Andy Ngo said “The wife of deported suspected gang terrorist Kilmar Abrego Garcia either lied to the court when she petitioned for a domestic violence protective order against him or she is lying now on the GoFundMe claiming he is an excellent husband as over $162K has poured in.” The case detail shows that it was brought by Vasquez against Garcia in May 2021 for domestic violence. The case has since been closed. Garcia has been referred to by many media outlets as a “Maryland man” or “Maryland dad.”
Per The Chesepeake Today, “Jennifer Vasquez filed for a protective order due to domestic violence from her husband on May 13, 2021, and a final order was issued on June 17, 2021, by Prince George’s County District Court Judge LaKeecia Allen. Judge Allen was elevated to the Circuit Court on Aug. 1, 2024, by Maryland Governor Wes Moore. Judge Allen previously served as a prosecutor in the Prince George’s State’s Attorney’s Office.”
In a press conference, Vasquez said “I will not stop fighting until I see my husband alive.” She spoke directly to Garcia, saying “stay strong. God has not forgotten about you.” She said she was “pleading with the Trump administration and the Bukele administration to stop playing political games with the life of Kilmar.” Their children, she said, miss their father. “I hope that the strength of faith and the resilience within us will keep us standing after all the punches we continue to receive. Our ability to fight back against these governments are testimonies to the fight and strength that God has given us.”
Democrat lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are reportedly planning trips to El Salvador to seek the release of an alleged MS-13 gang member and bring him back to the United States where he lived illegally from 2012 until March 2025.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was among the hundreds of illegal immigrants—a large percentage of them MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang members—deported to El Salvador last month under the Alien Enemies Act.
On Monday, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) reportedly sent a letter to El Salvador’s ambassador to the United States asking for a meeting with the President Nayib Bukele while he was in Washington D.C.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Armando Bukele told reporters during a meeting with President Donald Trump later in the day that he “of course” would not “smuggle” Kilmar Abrego Garcia back into the United States.
United States District Judge Indira Talwani, appointed by former President Barack Obama, has past ties to Democrats and ruled against immigration enforcement in the first Trump administration.
This week, Talwani blocked President Donald Trump from deporting migrants who were released into the United States interior via former President Joe Biden’s parole pipeline.
The decision by Talwani to prevent Trump from ending Biden’s parole pipeline, thus preventing the administration from deporting more than 530,000 migrants with no legal status in the United States, is among many from Democrat-appointed federal judges who have halted the White House from implementing its agenda.
Talwani was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in 2013 by then-President Obama. In her Senate questionnaire, Talwani revealed that she had volunteered for Obama’s presidential campaign.
Talwani also volunteered for Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D), and Martha Coakley’s (D) failed Senate campaign.
President Donald Trump and his administration have long been the targets of lawfare motivated by leftists, stretching back to his first term. Although Democrats have played semantic games to categorize these attacks as anything other than politically motivated, one lawmaker finally said the quiet part out loud.
Democratic Rep. Laura Friedman of California told town hall attendees Monday that she and her colleagues regularly gather in closed-door meetings dedicated to plotting legal attacks against Trump and his administration.
While this practice has become commonplace within the Democratic Party, congressional Republicans are doing what they can to put a stop to it.
“Every single week we have a litigation working group where a large group of us, and I’m talking there’s maybe 75 members of the House, sit down every single week with the [attorneys general] to talk about legal strategy,” Friedman said. “This is all going on every single week behind the scenes. It is nonstop.”
Friedman quickly diluted the severity of her admission by mentioning additional and more common avenues politicians use to attack each other.
“It is nonstop introduction of bills and legislation, nonstop being on social media as much as we can without being throttled, without the, you know, crazy analytics, and doing all these things,” Friedman said.
A Massachusetts federal judge stopped the Trump administration late Monday from yanking legal status from more than 530,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan nationals who were brought into the US under a controversial Biden administration parole program. Boston US District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, ruled that the migrants are entitled to a case-by-case review and declined to put her decision on hold while the Trump administration appeals it.
Biden’s parole program was granted by executive order, so the program can be terminated by executive order. If the Democrats wanted it to be permanent, they needed to go through Congress and get it signed into law.
Furthermore, the Supreme court just ruled that a district judge cannot issue a nationwide injunction.
President Donald Trump has issued an avalanche of executive actions since returning to the White House, but not all of them have held up to initial judicial scrutiny.
While Trump has been successful with several of his actions, others have been struck down by federal courts. The Trump administration still has avenues to appeal all of the negative rulings, but these are the orders currently paused by the courts.
A federal judge in Virginia has granted the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) request to dismiss a gun charge against a Salvadoran national whom Trump administration officials have called a senior leader of the notorious MS-13 transnational gang—clearing the way for his possible swift deportation.
In a minute order issued on April 15, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick approved the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the criminal complaint against 24-year-old Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos but delayed entry of the order until 10 a.m. on April 18 to give his defense attorney time to explore potential legal avenues to prevent his transfer into immigration custody.
The dismissal comes just weeks after Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a press conference that Santos is “one of the top three” MS-13 leaders in the United States and that he would not be “living in our country much longer.” President Donald Trump also weighed in, calling the arrest a major victory in his administration’s campaign to crack down on foreign gangs that pose a threat to American communities.
Federal prosecutors filed only a single charge against Santos—possession of a firearm by an illegal immigrant—after an FBI SWAT team raided his family home in Woodbridge, Virginia, on March 27. According to the affidavit, investigators found multiple firearms and “indicia of MS-13 association” in his bedroom, but no gang-related charges were ever filed.
Letitia James falsified records to meet lending requirements going so far as to claim on her application that she was married to her father.
Mortgage fraud is a crime and Letitia James is facing 30 years in prison and up to a million dollars in fines
“No one is above the law. Even when you think the rules don’t apply to you.” – Letitia James
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GW Law Prof Jonathan Turley on shocking Letitia James allegations: ‘The irony is crushing. James prosecuted Trump for misleading financial statements, yet now faces similar questions about residency claims and loan applications. DOJ has prosecuted others for falsely claiming properties as principal residences. Rules apparently don’t apply to those enforcing them.’”
Bombshell criminal referral on NY AG and Trump prosecutor Letitia James from Federal Housing Authority. Document contains serious claims of mortgage fraud and includes several pages of documentary evidence.
🚨 US Federal Housing Finance Agency Director @pulte has referred NY AG Letitia James to the DOJ for alleged mortgage fraud. pic.twitter.com/L9l96DBhOZ
🚨BREAKING: New documents accuse NY Attorney General Letitia James of mortgage fraud—claiming she tried to declare a Virginia property as her “principal residence” while serving in New York. pic.twitter.com/RY0pYV3xZB
🚨 #BREAKING: NY Attorney General Letitia James is facing potential federal MORTGAGE FRAUD charges after a criminal referral by the Federal Housing Finance Administration
Karma’s a BlTCH, Tish! 🤣
“James appears to have falsified records to meet certain lending requirements and… pic.twitter.com/MtaupIHNHd
New York Attorney General Letitia James is looking into potential insider trading by Trump administration officials and associates around last week’s 90-day tariff pause, James’ office confirmed to CNN on Monday.
The review is in its earliest stages and is not yet a full investigation. It’s unclear if it will ultimately uncover evidence of wrongdoing.
Some lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential for insider trading around Trump’s tariff announcement. However, no smoking gun has been revealed signaling wrongdoing.
Last Wednesday, President Trump took to Truth Social to calm fears amid his tariff blitz and the market drop.
“BE COOL! Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!” Trump wrote last Wednesday morning.
A few minutes later, President Trump said it was a good time to buy since the markets were down.
George Washington law professor and Fox News legal expert Jonathan Turley was floored by a Trump Administration official’s letter referring New York Attorney General Letitia James to the Department of Justice for potential criminal charges, calling the allegations “damning” and “pretty straightforward.”
The criminal referral came from Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director William Pulte, who outlined the allegations in a letter addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The letter, which was reviewed by Fox News and the New York Post, alleged that James had “falsified records” to get home loans for a property in Virginia. James had listed the property as her “principal residence” in 2023 despite serving as the attorney general of New York.
The letter further revealed that James previously purchased a Brooklyn home in 2001, but has “consistently misrepresented the same property as only having four units in both building permit applications and numerous mortgage documents and applications,” the letter noted. This could have allowed James to receive a lower mortgage rate and led to lower payments under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).
“Ms. James, for both properties listed above, appears to have falsified records in order to meet certain lending requirements and receive favorable loan terms,” Pulte wrote.
“Based on media reports, Ms. Letitia James has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire government backed assistance and loans and more favorable loan terms.”
The Trump administration hit New York Attorney General Letitia James with a criminal referral for alleged mortgage fraud on Tuesday, according to a report from the New York Post.
The outlet reported that Federal Housing FHFA Director William Pulte sent the referral to Attorney General Pam Bondi as well as the Department of Justice, and accused James of having “falsified records” to get a home loan in Virginia while she was still serving as the New York state AG. The alleged false documents said that James’ home in Virginia was her “principal residence.” When a home is labeled as ones “principal residence,” loans will sometimes have more favorable terms.
Balmer said Shapiro must “stop having my friends killed” and that “…our people have been put through too much by that monster.”
Cody Balmer, the 38-year-old man who firebombed the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, was driven to carry out the act based on his anger over what Governor Josh Shapiro “wants to do to the Palestinian people.” Police listed this as a motive in their search warrant for the home of Balmer’s parents, where he was living, along with his storage unit and electronics.
A statement from Corporal Benjamin Forsythe of the Pennsylvania State Police in the warrant said that Balmer went after Shapiro “based upon perceived injustices to the people of Palestine” and Shapiro’s Jewish faith.
Police found Balmer’s cell phone wrapped in foil. Officers said Balmer’s actions “followed the ‘terrorist attack cycle,’ a series of steps terrorists take while committing an act of terrorism: preliminary target selection, initial surveillance and pre-attack surveillance, planning and execution and escape and exploitation.”
The warrant, obtained by Penn Live, also reveals that Balmer phoned 911 less than an hour after the attack, telling operators who he was, and leaving a direct message for Shapiro. Balmer said he “will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.”
Cody Balmer, the suspect charged with setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion, was allegedly motivated by anger at Gov. Josh Shapiro‘s (D-PA) position on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Balmer, 38, allegedly had plans to beat the governor with a sledgehammer if he found him. He called 911 shortly after the arson attack, telling the operator he “will not take part in [Shapiro’s] plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people,” according to a police affidavit obtained byPennLive.
This image provided by Commonwealth Media Services shows damage after a fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion while Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family slept inside on Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (Commonwealth Media Services via AP)
Resisting police is a violent crime. It has always been a violent crime.
I know some of you may think that the police are disagreeable folk, but be forewarned that no matter what you think of them, there is no such thing as “nonviolent” resistance to arrest. If you are under that misapprehension, I can assure you, no matter what your political persuasion, that you’ll be relieved of those misapprehensions in a right hurry.
You would think this would be common sense. Even if police sometimes use excessive force to subdue a subject, the fact that they have to use force on someone who’s resisting arrest should be a non-issue. That’s especially true when law enforcement officers are subduing someone who’s acting in a threatening way toward a public official who’s a known target.
I say these things not because they’re controversial, but because they shouldn’t be. On Wednesday night, those hanging around social media got a first-hand demonstration of why some people leave their common sense at the door when they don’t like someone.