“A Paris appeals court set a verdict date of July 7 for Marine Le Pen in her European Union misuse of funds case, a crucial decision that could derail the far-right leader’s presidential bid. The trial ended Wednesday with one question looming above all others — whether Le Pen will be able to run for president next year. Le Pen, 57, is challenging a March 2025 verdict that found her and other members of her National Rally party guilty of misusing European Parliament funds in the hiring of aides from 2004 to 2016. She denies accusations that she was at the center of a fraudulent system meant to siphon off EU funds. Asked by the court whether she’d like to say anything in conclusion, Le Pen declined to speak. She quickly left the courthouse without stopping in front of a crowd of reporters.” (02/11/25)
“A crowd linked to Yemen’s separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) has attempted to storm a local government building in the southeastern Yemeni city of Ataq, leaving several dead, according to local authorities and sources. The security committee in Shabwah governorate said armed fighters assaulted security and military personnel and fired live ammunition during Wednesday’s attack, resulting in casualties as official forces intervened. … Rami Lamlas, deputy head of the Shabwah General Hospital Authority, told Al Jazeera that five people were killed and 39 wounded when security and military forces dispersed demonstrators affiliated with the STC.” (02/11/26)
“Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons refused to resign under pressure from Rep. Eric Swalwell [D-CA] who offered him the ultimatum to do so, or ‘side with the killers.’ The heated exchange during Tuesday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing isn’t the first time Swalwell has confronted ICE over its mass deportation operations. … Swalwell told Lyons that continuing to lead ICE is a ‘choice’ and highlighted his preceding decorated military and law enforcement career. ‘You are what I would call ‘otherwise employable.’ I think most people would agree this is not the only job that you can get. But since you’ve been on this job, women have been dragged by their hair through streets. A 6-year-old child battling stage-four cancer has been deported. And it turns out he was a U.S. citizen,’ Swalwell claimed.” (02/11/25)
“Uber announced a new AI feature called ‘Cart Assistant” for grocery shopping in its Uber Eats app. The new feature works a couple different ways. You can use text prompts, as you would with any other AI chatbot, to ask it to build a grocery list for you. Or you can upload a picture of your shopping list and ask it to populate your cart with all your favorite items, based on your order history. … Uber says in the coming months, Cart Assistant will add more features, including ‘full recipe inspiration, meal plans, and the ability to ask follow up questions, and expand to retail partners.’ But like all chatbots, Uber acknowledges that Cart Assistant may make mistakes, and urges users to double-check and confirm the results before placing any orders.” (02/11/26)
“Attorney General Pam Bondi clashed with lawmakers during a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, with the department’s handling of its Jeffrey Epstein records and its attempts to prosecute critics of President Donald Trump causing the most tension. … At times, Bondi’s performance on Wednesday seemed targeted specifically for Trump. She appeared to be reading off pre-written talking points on occasion and sang Trump’s praises, calling him ‘the greatest president in American history.’ Wednesday’s hearing devolved into a series of shouting matches as Democrats peppered Bondi with questions about Epstein and survivors of his abuse, many of whom attended the proceedings. … Bondi, in turn, repeatedly accused Democrats of ‘theatrics’ and said that she would not ‘get in the gutter with these people,’ though she repeatedly lobbed personal attacks on Democratic lawmakers.” (02/11/26)
“Canada’s strict gun laws include a ban on assault-style firearms and a national freeze on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns. The Canadian government has banned more than 2,500 makes and models of assault-style firearms in recent years. Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an immediate ban of more than 1,500 models on May 1, 2020, two weeks after a gunman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia. The ban included two weapons used by that gunman as well as the AR-15 and other weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States. ‘Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers,’ he said at the time. More than 12,000 guns were collected and destroyed as part of a compensation program for businesses that ran between November 2024 and April 2025. A similar program for individuals opened last month …. Those who do not participate must dispose of or permanently deactivate their prohibited guns before an amnesty period ends Oct. 30.” (02/11/25)
“Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie and seven others linked to a doomsday sect were issued with new charges on Wednesday over the deaths of 52 people whose bodies were found in shallow graves in southeast Kenya in 2025, a court charge sheet showed. Mackenzie and others were already facing charges including murder and terrorism in connection with the deaths of people whose bodies were exhumed earlier from Shakahola forest, in one of the world’s biggest cult-related disasters in recent history. Prosecutors say Mackenzie and his Good News International Church organised a cult in which they ordered followers to starve themselves and their children to death to go to heaven before the world ended. Mackenzie has denied the accusations.” (02/11/26)
“The Food and Drug Administration has declined to review Moderna’s application for the first mRNA-based flu vaccine, a decision that shocked the company and that comes as the agency plans to tighten federal vaccine approvals. The nation’s top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, told Moderna that it lacked an ‘adequate and well-controlled’ study, the company said in a news release Tuesday. In a large clinical trial, the vaccine was compared with Fluarix, an approved standard-dose flu vaccine. Prasad’s letter did not detail concerns with the safety or efficacy of the vaccine, which Moderna was aiming to target for adults ages 50 and older. Moderna President Stephen Hoge said that the company had previously engaged with the FDA on the trial design and that the agency earlier indicated it would be acceptable.” (02/10/26)
“Ten people including the shooter are dead after an assailant opened fire at a high school in western Canada on Tuesday in one of the country’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent history. The attack brought to Canada the type of mass shooting more common in the neighboring United States, and was carried out by a shooter described as female, police said. Six people were found dead inside a high school in the town of Tumbler Ridge, in British Columbia, two more people were found dead at a residence believed to be connected to the incident, and another person died on the way to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.” (02/11/25)
“Florida has executed a 64-year-old man for the 1989 murder of a traveling salesman, the state’s first execution and the nation’s second of the year. Ronald Heath was administered a three-drug lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke on Tuesday evening and was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. EST, the state’s Department of Corrections said in a statement. Though Heath is Florida’s first execution of 2026, his death follows a record-setting 2025 in which the Sunshine State put 19 death row inmates to death, accounting for 40% of the 47 executions carried out nationwide that year.” (02/11/26)
