Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi (Associated Press
Former President Donald Trump blasted former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the "very weird story" surrounding her husband after she said Trump looked scared ahead of his arraignment in federal court Thursday.
"I purposely didn’t comment on Nancy Pelosi’s very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me, with glee, that was really quite vicious," Trump commented on his Truth Social website.
Pelosi on Friday said Trump looked like a "scared puppy" as he arrived at a D.C. courthouse for his arraignment on four charges related to alleged 2020 election interference.
Trump, the current 2024 GOP front-runner, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
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"I saw a scared puppy," Pelosi said on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports."
"I didn’t see any bravado or confidence or anything like that," she added. "He knows the truth that he lost the election, and now he’s got to face the music."
Trump fired back, writing that the "millions" of people watching him on television enter the courtroom "didn’t see that."
"I wasn’t ‘scared,’" he said. "Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say! She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!"
Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was allegedly attacked during a home invasion in San Francisco on Oct. 28. The alleged attacker, David DePape, 42, faces state charges of attempted murder and elder abuse and federal charges for kidnapping after he allegedly broke into the Pelosi home and assaulted Paul with a hammer.
DePape will have a chance to state his case during a hearing Wednesday in San Francisco, with a federal trial set to begin Nov. 13.
Pelosi’s husband previously made headlines in May 2022 when he was arrested for causing a crash while driving drunk. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serving five days in jail and three years of probation.
The alleged attack sparked a number of right-wing conspiracy theories that ultimately hushed once video and audio evidence from the incident was released by a court in February.
In a rant posted to Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said, "I purposely didn't comment on Nancy Pelosi's very weird story concerning her husband, but now I can because she said something about me, with glee, that was really quite vicious. 'I saw a scared puppy,' she said, as she watched me on television, like millions of others, that didn't see that. I wasn't 'scared.' Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say! She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!"
After sentencing Pelosi to hell, he then pivoted to an all-caps freakout about not being able to get a fair trial for his many criminal charges writing, "NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL, OR EVEN CLOSE TO A FAIR TRIAL, IN WASHINGTON, D.C. THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR THIS, BUT JUST ONE IS THAT I AM CALLING FOR A FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF THIS FILTHY AND CRIME RIDDEN EMBARRASSMENT TO OUR NATION, WHERE MURDERS HAVE JUST SHATTERED THE ALL TIME RECORD, OTHER VIOLENT CRIMES HAVE NEVER NEEN WORSE, AND TOURISTS HAVE FLED. THE FEDERAL TAKEOVER IS VERY UNPOPULAR WITH POTENTIAL AREA JURORS, BUT NECESSARY FOR SAFETY, GREATNESS, & FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE!"
Damaged carriages are pictured following the derailment of the passenger train in Nawabshah. [AFP]
At least 20 people were killed and dozens of others injured on Sunday after an express train derailed in southern Pakistan, officials said, thrusting the dilapidated state of the country’s railway infrastructure back into the spotlight.
At least 11 carriages of the train, the Hazara Express, with at least 950 passengers onboard, fell off the tracks near the town of Nawabshah, local news media reported. The train, which left Karachi at 8 a.m., was heading to Havelian, in the northern part of the country.
Preliminary reports suggested that the Hazara Express had been operating at a moderate speed of 45 kilometers per hour (about 28 m.p.h.) when it derailed. Officials said the cause of the derailment could not be immediately determined.
Local TV networks broadcast images of crowds gathered around the derailed carriages as rescue workers tried to extricate the wounded from the mangled wreckage. Bodies pulled out of the debris were taken to a nearby hospital. Women and children were among those killed or injured.
Local workers, the railway authorities and paramilitary troops joined the rescue efforts. The Pakistan Army, following directives from the army’s chief, Gen. Syed Asim Munir, sent troops to assist the operations, according to a military statement.
Army helicopters were deployed to the crash site to take the wounded to nearby hospitals. Officials from the army and rangers were also distributing food to the survivors.
Rescue workers and paramilitary troops worked at the site of a train derailment on Sunday near Nawabshah, in southern Pakistan. Credit... Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
An emergency was declared at all hospitals in Nawabshah to accommodate the influx of injured passengers. Officials said that given the remote location of the accident, timely relief operations faced challenges.
The derailment led to the closure of both inbound and outbound tracks from Karachi, and a relief train was being dispatched from Kotri to assist with the situation, said the railways minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique.
The current government’s tenure is expected to conclude on Wednesday, and the railways minister said he had felt a sense of foreboding upon waking up on Sunday. “I thought we only had a few days left and was anxious about a potential accident,” he said during a news briefing.
Fatal train accidents have occurred with some frequency in Pakistan as the country’s railway system continues to grapple with deteriorating rail carriages and crumbling tracks. And safety standards are dismally lacking, experts say.
Efforts over the years to revamp the railway infrastructure and upgrade train carriages have met with limited success, despite repeated pledges by successive governments.
Police officials inspect the carriages at the accident site following the derailment of a passenger train in Nawabshah [Husnain Ali/AFP]
At the accident site outside Nawabshah, dozens of cars, tractors, rickshaws and motorcycles could be seen parked on a road that runs alongside the track
Volunteers were wading through a canal that separates the road from the railway line to help, and lifting the injured to get them assistance.
The Hazara Express is a daily passenger train that leaves the port city of Karachi in the south and takes around 33 hours to reach Havelian in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, some 1,600 kilometres north (994 miles).
Accidents and derailments occur frequently on Pakistan’s antiquated railway system. In June 2021 two trains collided near Daharki in Sindh, killing at least 65 people and injuring about 150 others.
In that accident, an express derailed onto the opposite track, and a second passenger train crashed into the wreckage roughly a minute later.
At least 75 passengers burnt to death in a fire aboard the Tezgam express train in October 2019, while a two-train collision at Ghotki killed more than 100 people in 2005.
More than two months on, Kiev’s counteroffensive shows no sign of being successful as the Ukrainian army’s losses in men and materiel continue to increase.
Former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst Larry Johnson has lashed out at the UK military over allegations about vegetation being a factor in stalling the advance of Ukrainian troops.
“Who knew that all the United States had to do to ensure the success of Ukraine’s counteroffensive was to provide them with a brigade of weed wackers, so they could have gone out there and cut down all the weeds,” Johnson said in an interview with a YouTube channel.
The ex-CIA analyst went on to say that he means “this is so nonsensical - you’ve got to wonder how in the world can alleged professional military people in Britain say something so stupid, so incredibly ignorant that they want to blame it [Kiev’s failed counteroffensive] on summer growth.”
He spoke a few days after the UK Defense Ministry claimed in its regular intelligence update that “undergrowth regrowing” in the southern part of the front line in Ukraine remains a likely factor “contributing to the generally slow progress of combat in the area.”
The ministry argued that arable land, which is abundant in the region, has been “left fallow for 18 months, with the return of weeds and shrubs accelerating under the warm, damp summer conditions.”
This provides extra camouflage cover for Russian defensive positions, complicating Kiev’s mine-sweeping efforts, according to the ministry. “Although undergrowth can also provide cover for small stealthy infantry assaults, the net effect has been to make it harder for either side to make advances,” the intelligence update pointed out.
On June 4, Kiev launched its counteroffensive in the vicinity of Zaporozhye, southern Donetsk and Artemovsk, using combat brigades trained by NATO instructors and armed with Western military equipment, including much-hyped Leopard 2 tanks. The advance, however, quickly came to a standstill, with Russian President Vladimir Putin stressing that the Ukrainian troops had been pushed back on all fronts as they suffered huge losses.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev has lost over 43,000 servicemen and 4,900 units of different military equipment on the line of contact since the start of Ukraine's counteroffensive.
Scott Ritter: Who is Responsible for Ukraine's Failed Counteroffensive?
On a normal summer's day, the road to Rabotino would be empty, save for the odd combine tractor and the vehicles driven by farmers and their families as they tend to the fields of crops they had planted in spring.
The summer’s heat would reflect off the horizon, creating glimmering mirages, while the still air would echo with the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects. On a normal summer's day, the road to Rabotino would resemble paradise.
Today, the road to Rabotino can best be described as a highway to hell: the serene landscape scarred with craters made by artillery shells, bombs, and mines. Fields that once grew crops intended to feed the world now seem to produce another crop—the torn, burned-out hulks of Ukrainian tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and other military vehicles of all shapes and sizes.
The air buzzes not with bees, but bullets, and the sky above is torn by the sound of shells passing overhead, on their way to their intended target, often consisting of a new crop of military metal waiting to be consumed by fire. The smell of fresh soil, young crops, and flowers of the field has been replaced by the fetid stench of rotting corpses, abandoned by their comrades who fled for their lives.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has assessed that, since the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in early June, the Ukrainian Army has suffered some 43,000 casualties, with more than 4,900 pieces of equipment, including 1,831 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (among which are included 25 German-made Leopard tanks and 21 US-made M-2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles) having been destroyed.
Russian casualties, while unspecified, have been alluded to by President Putin, who stated that the kill ratio was 10:1 in Russia’s favor. That equates to 4,300 casualties: the brutal blade of war cuts both ways.
The casualties suffered by Ukraine roughly align with the casualties suffered by German forces during their offensive operations against the Soviet Army in the battle of Kursk, fought in the month of July and August 1943. The Kursk battle was one of the largest during the Second World War.
This should give one an idea of the scope and scale of the violence which has transpired in and around the village of Rabotino, and elsewhere in the Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions where Ukraine and Russian forces are confronting one another.
When an army suffers a defeat of the scope and scale of that suffered by Ukraine near Rabotino, and in other fields and villages across the line of contact with Russia, it is normally incumbent upon the leadership of the defeated forces to ascertain the reasons why the defeat occurred, and then to undertake remedial action to correct the problems identified.
It came weeks after being on the receiving end of criticism from their erstwhile allies and partners in NATO, who provided Ukraine with both the material used to equip the Ukrainian Army, and training on how this equipment was to be used in battle against the Russians.
According to NATO, the Ukrainians were not using the tactics taught to them in Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, and as such failed to make best use of the equipment that had been provided to them for this offensive.
From the Ukrainian perspective, however, the blame is cast back on NATO for providing Ukraine with a plan of action, but not providing the tools necessary to successfully implement the plan. While the Ukrainian military did receive most, if not all (or in some cases, more) of the 300 tanks, 500 infantry fighting vehicles, and 500 artillery pieces it had said were required for a successful counterattack designed to throw Russian forces from the former Ukrainian territories of Kherson, Zaporozhye, Donetsk, and Lugansk that were annexed by Russia in September 2022 following a referendum on joining Russia—as well as Crimes, which Russia annexed back in 2014—the Ukrainians did not receive the artillery ammunition or modern F-16 fighter aircraft it had requested.
The failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to the Ukrainian leadership, was directly attributable to the inability of Ukraine to suppress Russian artillery and airpower, both of which, when combined with the extensive use by Russia of mines in preparing their defenses, prevented the Ukrainians from achieving their goals and objectives outlined for the operation, namely to break through the Russian defenses and capture the city of Melitopol, thereby severing the land bridge connecting Crimea to Russia.
But the reality is that the Ukrainian counteroffensive was never going to work, under any circumstance. First and foremost, the Ukrainian Army is not the same military force that existed when the Special Military Operation began in February 2022. That army was largely destroyed in the fighting that raged from February through June 2022.
Thanks to tens of billions of NATO-provided equipment, and billions more in financial and training support, Ukraine was able to rebuild its army, which it used to good effect in the fall of 2022, driving Russian forces out of the Kharkov region and from the right back of the Dnieper River.
But this victory came with a heavy price tag, and NATO and Ukraine were compelled to build a third army, consisting of the equipment requested by Ukraine, and some 60-90,000 Ukrainian troops who were trained by NATO. It is this army that is being sacrificed on the road to Rabotino today.
Most of the troops that comprised this new army had little or no prior military experience. They received approximately three weeks of training on military fundamentals, before being trained on the operation (and maintenance) of the new NATO weapons they would be using.
Then they spent a few weeks carrying out field exercises designed to simulate an attack on the Russian defenses using complex “combined arms” tactics taught by NATO and American instructors. After this, they were shipped back to Ukraine and sent on the road to Rabotino.
The reduction of a prepared defensive line is one of the most complicated tasks one can assign a military unit in combat. To successfully execute this mission, the assault forces need to be masters of their craft, operating as part of a combined arms team capable of suppressing enemy forces, and breaching minefields while maneuvering under fire.
This is a task that experienced units with years of training under their belts would have difficulty pulling off. For an army like Ukraine’s third-generation force, this was a mission impossible, something every NATO trainer involved in preparing the Ukrainian forces would have known.
The massacre that occurred along the road to Rabotino was unavoidable so long as Ukraine and their NATO masters believe that the conflict with Russia can be resolved through force of arms. The problem is that the disparity between the quality and quantity of forces deployed by Ukraine and their western supporters on the one side, and Russia on the other, is too wide to be bridged by any combination of training and equipment NATO might be able to provide.
There is no magic weapon available to the West that can change the reality on the battlefield in and around Rabotino. Neither F-16’s and/or ATACMS can alter this reality. Nor is there a magic wand that can be waved over the battlefield to change the qualitative issues regarding the Ukrainian soldiers, who arrive on one of the most technologically advanced—and lethal—battlefields in modern history with little or no training.
The Ukrainian generals responsible for giving the orders to the Ukrainian Army, and the NATO trainers who prepared them for battle, knew that the outcome that is transpiring along the road to Rabotino was inevitable.
The harsh fact is that tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and billions of dollars of western military equipment have been sacrificed not for viable military purposes, of which there are none, but rather to assuage the political needs of Ukraine’s leaders, who needed to be seen as being willing to make use of the training and material support provided, and their US and NATO masters, who needed to be able to point to battlefield successes in Ukraine to justify the diversion of their respective national treasury and military arsenal to the Ukrainian cause.
The road to Rabotino is paved with the detritus of western hubris, manifested in the flesh and blood of the Ukrainian Army scattered amongst the destroyed material produced by the defense industries of the collective West. This battle had only one possible ending, which has come to pass.
But the real tragedy is that neither Ukraine nor the collective West have absorbed the lessons that they were taught by the Russian Army—that the conflict in Ukraine can only end in a Russian victory.
Sadly, many thousands of more Ukrainian soldiers, and tens of billions of dollars more of western military equipment, will need to be sacrificed before this lesson is finally driven home.
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian who was killed during clashes with Israeli settlers, in a hospital in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank August 4, 2023. REUTERS/Ali Sawafta/File Photo
Washington has condemned as terrorism the killing of a Palestinian by suspected Jewish settlers, in sharpened language that appeared to reflect U.S. frustration with surging violence in the occupied West Bank under Israel's hard-right government.
Israeli police detained two settlers in Friday's incident near Burqa village. According to Palestinians, they were part of a group that threw rocks, torched cars and, when confronted by villagers, shot a 19-year-old dead and wounded several others.
Initial findings by Israel's military cast the incident as a confrontation that escalated, with casualties on both sides. A defence lawyer said the settlers - one of whom was absent from a court hearing due to a head injury - acted in self-defence.
In their arraignment, a transcript of which was obtained by Haaretz newspaper, the state accused the settlers of "deliberate or depraved-indifference homicide" with a racist motivation.
"We strongly condemn yesterday's terror attack by Israeli extremist settlers that killed a 19-year old Palestinian," the U.S. State Department said in a statement late on Saturday, urging "full accountability and justice".
Amid increased attacks on their communities by Palestinians armed with guns, rocks or firebombs, settlers have repeatedly rampaged in West Bank villages, causing extensive property damage. Among their victims have been Palestinians with U.S. dual citizenship.
The State Department statement on Burqa was issued back-to-back with a statement condemning as terrorism a Palestinian gun attack that killed a security officer in Tel Aviv.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist government has bristled at any comparisons between Israeli and Palestinian militancy.
Far-right minister for police Itamar Ben-Gvir said on social media that Palestinian stone-throwers at Burqa "tried to murder Jews" and that he expected them to be fully investigated.
The West Bank is among areas where Palestinians seek statehood. U.S.-mediated negotiations with Israel to that end stalled almost a decade ago, boosting hardliners on both sides.
According to Israel's Army Radio, the rate of attacks by settlers or their supporters against Palestinians in the West Bank has more than doubled this year compared to 2022.
"We are faced with the evolution of a dangerous Jewish nationalist terrorism," opposition lawmaker Benny Gantz, a former defence minister, said on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Whatever happened at Burqa, it joins a slew of events that beset our security forces with having to pursue, rather than protect, Israelis."
Two Israelis arrested after Palestinian man killed in West Bank
Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images
Mourners carry the body of 19-year-old Palestinian Qusai Jamal Maatan, during his funeral in the village of Burqa in the north of the occupied West Bank on August 5, 2023.
Two Israelis have been arrested for questioning and five others detained following the reported killing of a Palestinian man in the West Bank, Israel Police said in a statement Saturday.
It is rare for Israeli settlers to be arrested for attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. They are almost never prosecuted, even if arrested.
A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli settlers in the village of Burqa, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said late Friday.
It is the first accusation from the Ministry that settlers have killed a Palestinian villager since February, and the second this year, although both Palestinian officials and international observers regularly document violence by settlers against Palestinians.
The ministry said Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, was fatally shot in the neck by Israeli settlers during an attack on his village. Two others were injured, according to the ministry.
Maatan was buried Saturday morning.
The IDF said in a statement that they arrived after reports of “violent clashes between Israeli civilians and Palestinians,” and that “it was reported that during the clashes, Israeli civilians shot toward the Palestinians and as a result, there was a Palestinian casualty.”
The IDF also said Israeli civilians were reportedly injured by rocks hurled at them.
There was no immediate comment from the Shomron (Samaria) Council, which represents settlers in the northern West Bank and would not normally issue a statement on Shabbat.
A legal aid group that defends settlers said Saturday that the settler who shot the Palestinian was acting in self-defense after Palestinian villagers began harassing an Israeli shepherd.
Honenu, the legal group, said the incident began when Palestinians from Burqa threatened the shepherd from Oz Zion – a settler outpost – which is illegal not only under international law but under Israeli law.
The shepherd called other settlers “to prevent deterioration,” Honenu said, after which dozens of Palestinians attacked them with clubs, fireworks and rocks.
One of the settlers was hit in the head with a rock “at point blank range and was seriously injured,” according to Honenu, and he managed to defend himself with a licensed gun he was carrying.
He is currently in intensive care following an operation at Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, and under arrest, Honenu said.
The second Israeli settler who was arrested helped transport him to the hospital, Honenu said.
Honenu attorney Nati Rom said: “My client acted according to the law, and as is required of any licensed firearm holder – to protect his life and the lives of other civilians.”
A statement released by the Israeli military said both Israelis and Palestinians threw stones in the West Bank confrontation.
The army has imposed a closed military zone on the area while investigations by Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency (ISA) are ongoing.
The US State Department qualified the incident as a “terror attack”.
In a statement released on Twitter, now known as X, it said: “We strongly condemn yesterday’s terror attack by Israeli extremist settlers that killed a 19-year old Palestinian.”
“The US extends our deepest sympathies to his family and loved ones. We note Israeli officials have made several arrests and we urge full accountability and justice.”
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly condemned attacks by what they referred to as “organized and armed terrorist settler militias” against unarmed Palestinian citizens in Burqa.
The ministry expressed concern over the lack of real punishment for attacks by settlers on Palestinian villagers, saying the incidents have emboldened settlers to commit further crimes. The ministry accused Israeli government ministers and their followers of incitement.
The coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu includes two parties primarily supported by settlers, Israelis who live in the West Bank in order to cement the country’s hold on the Palestinian territory. Settlements are considered illegal under international law. Israeli asserts the West Bank is “disputed,” not “occupied,” and denies that the settlements are illegal.
The United Nations warned last month of a dramatic rise in West Bank settler attacks on Palestinian people and property, with nearly 600 such incidents registered during the first half of the year.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said it had recorded 591 settler-related incidents in the territory in the first six months of 2023, resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both.
No casualties or damage occurred as a result of the foiled terrorist attack, the ministry added.
A Ukrainian drone has been destroyed by an air defense system in the Podolsk district of Moscow region with no casualties or damage reported, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
"At 11:27 a.m. (08:27 GMT) today, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an unmanned aerial vehicle against facilities in the Moscow region was foiled. The UAV was destroyed by air defense forces on the territory of the Podolsk district," the ministry said.
This is the second drone attack on the Russian capital in a week.
On Monday night, several drones, on their way to the Russian capital, were shot down by air defenses, but one hit a skyscraper housing government ministries in the Moscow-City business center.
No casualties were reported after the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed Ukraine for the attack, adding that two drones were shot down, and the third one was suppressed by electronic warfare systems and fell on non-residential buildings in the business center. Ukraine neither confirmed nor denied the attack.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is compromising the United States by conducting terrorist attacks against civil infrastructure, trying to blackmail the White House to receive more assistance.
Air defense systems destroy drone on its approach to Moscow — mayor
A drone has been destroyed on the approach to Moscow by air defense systems, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin wrote on his Telegram channel.
"Today at around 11:00 a.m. a drone attempted to break through to Moscow. It was destroyed on the approach by air defenses. Well done, the military," Sobyanin wrote.
Su-34 front-line bombers of the "South" group of troops destroyed the deployment points of 2 brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of Serebryanka and Ivanovsky with guided bombs, the head of the press center of the group Astafyev told RIA Novost.
