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U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that her ascension was an illegal end-run around the Senate’s advice and consent role.

Kari Lake was illegally empowered to run the U.S. Agency for Global Media — the federal agency that oversees Voice of America — and her actions in that role were illegitimate, a federal judge ruled Saturday.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that Lake was ineligible to serve as USAGM’s acting CEO when she was formally elevated to the position on July 31 in an “acting capacity” and without Senate confirmation. She relinquished that position on Nov. 19.

Lamberth said any actions Lake took in that four-month timeframe must be treated as “void,” including an Aug. 29 reduction in USAGM’s workforce. Lamberth also invalidated actions Lake took when the agency’s previous acting CEO, Victor Morales, delegated nearly the entirety of his responsibilities to her, concluding that this was also an illegal end-run around the Senate’s advice and consent role.

The price of oil surged higher and showed no signs of halting its rapid climb a week after the U.S. and Israel launched major attacks on Iran that escalated into a war in the Middle East.

The conflict, in which nearly every country in the Middle East has sustained damage from missiles or drone strikes, has left ships that carry roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Gulf that is bordered on its north side by Iran.

The shipping disruption and damage to key Middle East oil and gas facilities has interrupted supplies from some of the world’s largest oil producers. Kuwait, for example, said on Saturday that it would reduce its oil production as a “precautionary” measure due to the war, which could jolt global energy markets even further.

Caitlin Kalinowski, head of robotics and consumer hardware at OpenAI, announced her resignation on Saturday, citing ​concerns about the company's agreement with the Department ‌of Defense.

In a social media post on X, Kalinowski wrote that OpenAI did not take enough time before agreeing to deploy its AI models ​on the Pentagon's classified cloud networks.

"AI has an ​important role in national security," Kalinowski posted. "But surveillance of ⁠Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human ​authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got.”

Trump’s private comments have not focused on a large-scale ground invasion of Iran, but rather on the idea of a small contingent of U.S. troops that would be used for specific strategic purposes, sources say.

Donald Trump has privately expressed serious interest in deploying U.S. troops on the ground inside of Iran, according to two U.S. officials, a former U.S. official and another person with knowledge of the conversations.

Trump has discussed the idea of deploying ground troops with aides and Republican officials outside the White House while outlining his vision for a post-war Iran in which Iran’s uranium is secure and the U.S. and a new Iranian regime cooperate on oil production similar to how the U.S. and Venezuela are, the sources said.

The president’s comments expressing serious interest in deploying ground troops have not focused on a large-scale ground invasion of Iran, but rather on the idea of a small contingent of U.S. troops that would be used for specific strategic purposes, the U.S. officials, the former U.S. official and the person with knowledge of the discussions said. They said Trump has not made any decisions or given any orders related to ground troops.

A new Pew Research Center study found 53% of U.S. adults rated Americans’ morals and ethics as “bad,” making the U.S. the only country surveyed where that view prevailed.

Trust in other people underpins everything from civic life to everyday cooperation, so broad skepticism about neighbors’ character can shape politics, institutions and social cohesion.

Pew’s findings add an international benchmark to a long-running American debate about polarization and whether people see opponents—and even fellow citizens—as acting in good faith.

A federal judge in Oregon on Friday limited federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at a Portland federal immigration building, as part of a lawsuit filed by an adjacent affordable housing complex following months of repeated exposure.

U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio issued the preliminary injunction after a hearing last month in which the complex’s residents described physical and psychological symptoms ranging from difficulty breathing, coughing, burning eyes and hives to anxiety and panic attacks. Some also testified about wearing gas masks in their own homes.

The case comes amid growing concern over federal officers using aggressive crowd-control tactics, as cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge spearheaded by Donald Trump’s administration.

Temporary Protected Status is a humanitarian program that shields eligible migrants from deportation and allows them to work.

A divided U.S. appeals court has refused to let the Trump administration revoke legal protections that allow more than 350,000 Haitians to live and work in the U.S. and avoid being returned to their gang-violence-stricken country.

A 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit late on Friday rejected the administration’s bid to pause a February 2 ruling that blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from ending Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status.

Under outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the department has moved to end TPS for a dozen countries as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, arguing the program was never intended to serve as a “de facto amnesty.”

The MoD said the preparedness of HMS Prince of Wales is being increased, reducing the time it would take for it be deployed

The UK is preparing an aircraft carrier for possible deployment to the Middle East, reducing the time it would take to be readied.

This does not mean that Portsmouth-based HMS Prince of Wales, which is used to carry fighter jets and helicopters, will be sent into the Gulf as conflict escalates in the region, but the preparedness of the Royal Navy’s flagship is being increased, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

The Independent understands no decisions to deploy the Prince of Wales have been taken.

An MoD spokesperson told The Independent: “We have been bolstering our UK military presence in the Middle East since January, and we have already deployed capabilities to protect British people and our allies in the region, including Typhoons, F-35 jets, air defence systems and an extra 400 personnel into Cyprus.

Commandos started digging up grave thought to be of famous IDF pilot, leading to gunfight followed by airstrikes

An Israeli operation in eastern Lebanon to locate the remains of a famous IDF pilot ended in failure overnight, when the commandos were caught in a gunfight with Hezbollah and local residents, leading Israeli jets to pummel the area with airstrikes that killed dozens of people.

The fighting left three Lebanese soldiers and 41 residents of the Bekaa valley dead, according to the Lebanese army and ministry of health. No injuries were reported among the Israeli soldiers.

Two Israeli helicopters landed outside the towns of Nabi Chit and Khraibeh along the Syrian-Lebanese border in the eastern Bekaa valley at 10pm on Friday night, dropping off Israeli soldiers, according to the Lebanese army. The Israeli soldiers headed to a cemetery in Nabi Chit, and began to dig up a grave, where they suspected the remains of Ron Arad, an Israeli pilot who went missing in Lebanon in 1986, were held.

The 35-year-old inmate ‘freely” admitted to having sex with the woman, saying ‘look at the video,’ police said

The 35-year-old inmate ‘freely” admitted to having sex with the woman, saying ‘look at the video,’ police said

When he was supposed to be slinging hash at a sheriff’s barbecue, a Florida prisoner instead slinked off to have sex with a woman in a portable toilet, according to police.

Hartley Elliot Sanchez, 35, is now facing a felony prisoner escape charge after police said he wandered away from his duties for a secret dalliance, according to an arrest report from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office obtained by The Smoking Gun.

The fourth-term congressman, who lost decisively to state Rep. Steve Toth, said baseless attacks about his alleged insider trading and gun stances fueled the upset.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw blamed unfounded attacks and a culture of misinformation for his primary loss to state Rep. Steve Toth, saying in an interview that the “power of clickbait” proved too much to overcome.

Crenshaw, a fourth-term congressman from Atascosita, lost to Toth, one of the most conservative members of the Texas Legislature, by a decisive 15-point margin, according to unofficial returns.

His district, which includes Kingwood, Lake Houston and The Woodlands, is split between Harris County and Montgomery County, a hotbed of conservative activism where Attorney General Ken Paxton received twice as many votes as incumbent John Cornyn in the Senate Republican primary.

Crenshaw acknowledged that the “telling the truth thing” is viewed as “a real crime” among some voters. But he heaped most of the blame for his loss on what he said were baseless attacks over his alleged insider trading and stance on red flag laws — leaving Crenshaw, in his eyes, to fend off talking points that twisted the truth.

Review of FDA records by the Environmental Working Group reveals firms are exploiting rule to send new chemicals in food system

More than 100 substances widely used in common US foods, supplements and beverages underwent no health and safety review by the US Food and Drug Administration, a new analysis of federal records finds.

The review of FDA records by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) non-profit reveals that diverse products across the food pyramid, such as Capri Sun drinks, Kettle and Fire organic broth, Acme smoked fish, and Quaker Oats snack bars, use a range of substances that have not undergone review by regulators.

Companies are using the generally recognized as safe (GRAS) rule that was developed in 1958 to allow ingredients such as salt or white vinegar to be used without a burdensome and needless review process.