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House Passes Bill to Reauthorize Terrorism Risk Insurance Program…

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Mamdani is under fire after a symbolic 9/11 pen was handed to a former al Qaeda defense lawyer.

Kassem now serves as chief counsel to Mamdani and was listed by the mayor at Friday’s ceremony among senior administration officials involved in the event.

City Hall told the New York Post that Kassem attended because his office helped draft both executive orders as part of his responsibilities as chief counsel.

The symbolism of giving him the signing pen nevertheless drew immediate criticism from relatives of 9/11 victims and Republican members of the New York City Council.

Dennis Warchola, whose firefighter brother Michael died in the North Tower, questioned why someone with Kassem’s legal history would be singled out during a ceremony commemorating the attacks.

Council Member Joann Ariola described the move as “breathtakingly tone-deaf and disrespectful,” arguing that the anniversary should focus on victims and their families.

Retired NYPD detective Michael Alcazar also criticized the symbolism, telling the Post he believed the handoff had been calculated, although no evidence has emerged establishing that Mamdani intended the gesture as a political statement.

The mayor’s executive orders themselves focus explicitly on honoring those killed on September 11, first responders, survivors and families affected by the attacks.

The remembrance order directs city agencies to observe moments of silence, hold commemorative programs and promote volunteer service each September 11.

A second order announced alongside it updates emergency preparedness procedures and creates a new interagency team aimed at maintaining essential city operations during future crises.

Mamdani said the orders were intended to demonstrate that “Never Forget” should involve both remembrance and concrete preparation to protect New Yorkers.

The controversy therefore centers not on the substance of the executive orders but on the ceremonial decision to give the signing pen to Kassem.

Kassem’s work representing accused or convicted terrorism suspects was undertaken in his role as an attorney, and legal representation does not imply endorsement of a client’s conduct or ideology.


President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama were at odds again in public this week after elections in Hungary saw the administration’s preferred candidate, now former Prime Minister Victor Orban, defeated by a left-wing candidate, Peter Magyar.

Before the election, Trump dispatched Vice President JD Vance to Hungary for

a last-minute boost of U.S. support, but that didn’t seem to move the needle much, and Magyar won comfortably, leading Obama to gloat online.

“The victory of the opposition in Hungary yesterday, like the Polish election in 2023, is a victory for democracy, not just in Europe but around the world. Most of all, it’s a testament to the resilience and determination of the Hungarian people – and a reminder to all of us to keep striving for fairness, equality and the rule of law,” Obama wrote on X.

Orban governed Hungary for 16 years, and he won each time through democratic elections.

Meanwhile, Obama has been feuding with Trump and the MAGA movement in other ways, including supporting redistricting in Virginia and California after opposing it in Texas, Missouri, and other red states.

He also used the occasion of the death of the Rev. Jesse Jackson to attack the Trump administration and Republicans in general with a fearmongering speech that even drew the rebuke of Jesse Jackson Jr., the late civil rights icon’s son.

Earlier this month, Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth both took Obama to task for gifting the Iranian regime with “piles” of cash that enabled Tehran to obtain the ballistic missiles and weapons that were used to target American and allied installations throughout the Middle East.

Their remarks come as the United States and Israel enter the fourth week of Operation Epic Fury, which aims to eliminate Iran’s military capabilities following Trump’s claim that the Iranian regime is rebuilding its nuclear weapons program.

During remarks at the FII PRIORITY Summit on Friday, Trump also lashed

out at Obama for his ‘nuclear deal’ with Iran that the current president ended during his first term after revealing that Tehran was cheating and continuing to develop a nuclear weapons capability in secret.

Trump mentioned the $1.7 billion payment made to Iran during the execution of the Iran nuclear deal. He described the funds as cash delivered by airplane and expressed his dissatisfaction with this action, stating that it provided Iran with the means to finance hostile activities.

“That Barack Hussein Obama, did you ever hear of him? Barack Hussein Obama, he had the Iran nuclear deal. He went to Iran, he paid them,” the POTUS said. “Remember, he sent two Boeing 757 jetliners. They took the seats out and they piled it with cash, like 1.7 billion of cash.”

“That’s when I realized the president is very powerful. The presidency is a very powerful thing when you can do that. I haven’t done that yet. I haven’t found a reason to do that yet, but that’s big,” the Republican leader expressed.

At the time, Obama justified the massive payout by claiming Iran was owed the money over a legal claim related to a failed arms deal in 1979 after the Islamic revolution ushered in the ayatollah and deposed the Shah, taking dozens of Americans prisoner and holding them for more than 440 days.

“You know, there wasn’t a bank in DC, Virginia, or Maryland that had any money after that disaster,” Trump said.

“But they sent the cash to Iran, but more importantly, they signed an agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, which, if I didn’t terminate it in my first term, I terminated it almost immediately. If I didn’t terminate it, they would have had a nuclear weapon long ago, and they would have used it on the Middle East, Israel,” the commander-in-chief further stated.


At kilometer 446 of BR-251, near the rural community of Barrocão in Grão Mogol, a van returning workers to Ceará collided head-on with an empty heavy-haul truck traveling toward Rio Grande do Sul. The impact threw both vehicles off the road into difficult terrain, turning rescue into a race against time in the dark and rain. Firefighters, SAMU, federal highway police, and forensic teams struggled to reach victims trapped in crushed metal, using hydraulic tools to free the living and recover the dead.

Nine people in the van died at the scene, among them a child; eight others were injured, including another child and a man in critical condition. The truck’s two occupants survived with minor wounds. As investigators analyze tire marks, weather, and road design, this crash exposes once more the lethal combination that made BR-251 infamous as the “road of death”: heavy traffic, dangerous curves, fragile infrastructure, and political delay. Behind the statistics are families shattered forever, waiting not just for answers, but for change.

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