Father’s Eerie Last Message to Wife Revealed Before Mountain Tragedy

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A Minnesota hiker was found deceased in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains nearly a month after he sent a final text message to his wife and was not heard from again, authorities said Thursday.

The body of Grant Gardner, 38, was found underneath a ledge near the summit of the 13,000-foot Cloud Peak by a professional climbing team from North Carolina, the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

“While it’s not the outcome we hoped for, we are hopeful this will provide much needed peace and closure to the family,” the sheriff’s office said.

Gardner went missing on July 29 in the Cloud Peak Wilderness, where he had planned a three-day hike through the Misty Moon Lake area before eventually summiting Cloud Peak.

Phone records showed Gardner’s last known contact was a message to his wife on that day, “letting her know he’d made it to the summit,” the sheriff’s office has said. Authorities said the text indicated “the climb was more taxing than he expected and he was tired.” (Read more from “Father’s Eerie Last Message to Wife Revealed Before Mountain Tragedy” HERE)

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Putin’s Three Demands for Ukraine Peace Revealed After Alaska Summit With Trump: Report

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid out three conditions he says are necessary to achieve peace in Ukraine, according to a new report.

Putin, who met with Donald Trump two weeks ago in Alaska for a high-stakes summit, is demanding that Ukraine surrender control of the remaining parts of the Donbas region, abandon its bid to join NATO, and accept strict neutrality that bars Western forces from setting foot in the war-torn country, three sources familiar with Kremlin thinking told Reuters.

The reported proposal marks a scaling back from Moscow’s earlier demands. In June 2024, Russia insisted Kyiv give up four provinces: Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, along with Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. Now, according to Russian sources, Putin is seeking only the full Donbas in exchange for halting operations in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Russia currently controls about 88% of the Donbas, as well as 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, according to U.S. intelligence estimates and open-source data. Moscow has also signaled it could return small parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions as part of a potential settlement.

Still, Putin remains firm on his two other core demands: that Ukraine’s NATO ambitions, written into its constitution, be abandoned, and that Western militaries not be allowed to deploy in Ukraine under any peacekeeping mandate.

“Putin is ready for peace — for compromise,” one Russian source told Reuters. “That is the message that was conveyed to Trump.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected any deal that involves ceding internationally recognized Ukrainian territory to Russia. On Thursday, he stressed the Donbas region is essential to his country’s survival.

“If we’re talking about simply withdrawing from the east, we cannot do that,” Zelensky said. “It is a matter of our country’s survival, involving the strongest defensive lines.”

He also argued that Ukraine’s NATO aspirations are a sovereign matter and should not be dictated by Moscow.

For now, no direct talks between Putin and Zelensky are scheduled. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told NBC News that “the agenda is not ready at all” for such a summit.

“President Putin said clearly that he is ready to meet provided this meeting is really going to have an agenda, presidential agenda,” Lavrov said, accusing Kyiv of stalling.

Meanwhile, Trump has applied pressure from the sidelines, warning of “massive” sanctions and tariffs if Putin and Zelensky fail to move toward negotiations.

“I’ll see whose fault it is,” Trump said Friday. “If there are reasons why, I would understand that. I know exactly what I’m doing. We’re going to see whether or not they have a meeting — that will be interesting to see.”

Zelensky has said he is ready to meet Putin but accused the Kremlin leader of blocking progress.

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Trump’s Tariffs Ruled Illegal in Stunning Blow to President’s Agenda

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A federal appeals court delivered a major setback to President Donald Trump’s trade agenda Friday, ruling that the sweeping tariffs he imposed earlier this year are illegal under U.S. law.

In a 3–0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — the statute Trump cited to justify his global tariff program — does not grant the president authority to unilaterally impose such broad duties.

The ruling affirmed an earlier decision from the Court of International Trade, which struck down Trump’s executive orders in May. However, the appeals court paused its judgment until October 14 to allow the administration time to seek Supreme Court review.

“This is a significant constitutional question about the limits of presidential power,” said Georgetown University law professor Michael Ramsey. “The courts are signaling that trade policy — especially blanket tariffs — belongs to Congress, not the White House.”

Trump made tariffs a centerpiece of his second term after declaring a national emergency at the southern border on January 20. By April, he rolled out a sweeping tariff regime that reshaped U.S. trade relations with dozens of countries.

The measures included:

“Reciprocal tariffs”: a 10% baseline duty on nearly all imports, with higher surcharges for countries like China, India, and Canada.

Drug-related tariffs: 25% duties on Mexico and Canada and up to 20% on China, justified as part of the fight against fentanyl and cross-border trafficking.

Industry-specific tariffs: a 25% “fentanyl tariff” on Chinese pharmaceutical imports, a 100% duty on foreign films, and doubled steel and aluminum tariffs (from 25% to 50%).

Automobile duties: a 25% tariff on imported cars.

De minimis repeal: ending the exemption for low-value international packages, meaning even small online purchases from abroad now face tariffs.

At their peak, tariffs on Chinese goods climbed to 145% before a temporary July truce lowered rates to 30%. Canada, Mexico, and India were also hit with duties ranging from 25% to 50%.

The tariff blitz sparked immediate backlash. A coalition of small businesses and 12 states filed suit earlier this year, arguing that Trump’s actions were unconstitutional and exceeded his statutory authority.

Small manufacturers, retailers, and farm exporters said the tariffs increased costs, strained supply chains, and invited retaliatory measures from key trading partners. China and Canada both responded with their own counter-duties, escalating trade tensions.

“We’ve been left in a state of uncertainty for months,” said David Brown, who runs a small auto-parts importing business in North Carolina. “Now at least we know the courts are siding with the rule of law instead of executive overreach.”

The White House has not yet issued an official response, but senior officials are widely expected to appeal to the Supreme Court before the October deadline. If the high court agrees to hear the case, it could set up a defining legal battle over the scope of presidential authority in trade policy.

The ruling also reopens debate on Congress’s role in shaping tariffs and trade. While the Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, presidents of both parties have increasingly tested the boundaries of executive authority in the trade arena.

For now, businesses, consumers, and America’s trading partners are left waiting to see whether Trump’s tariffs — a cornerstone of his “America First” agenda — will survive judicial scrutiny.

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Pete Hegseth Fires Director of Defense Intelligence Agency After Iran Strike Report

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has removed the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Kruse, following the release of a preliminary assessment regarding U.S. strikes on Iran in June, according to multiple reports.

The New York Times reported that both a senior defense official and a senator confirmed Kruse’s dismissal, making him the second top military intelligence leader to be ousted since President Donald Trump returned to office in January. Earlier this year, Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, head of the National Security Agency, was forced out after complaints raised by a right-wing commentator.

Kruse, a veteran intelligence officer, had been serving as director of the DIA since 2023. His removal was described by officials as stemming from a “loss of confidence,” though it was not immediately clear whether he would be reassigned within the Air Force. Two congressional officials told the Times that lawmakers were formally notified of the decision.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sharply criticized the move, saying it highlighted what he called the Trump administration’s “dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country.”

The Washington Post also confirmed Kruse’s firing, citing two people familiar with the matter. They reported that officials did not immediately provide a reason beyond the stated “loss of confidence.”

Kruse’s dismissal came in the wake of a DIA preliminary report assessing the impact of U.S. military strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities in June. The assessment reportedly caused friction within the administration, though the precise contents of the report have not been made public.

The firing underscores growing tension between the Pentagon’s intelligence community and the Trump administration.

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Three States Face Loss of Federal Funding Over Trump Trucking Mandate

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday warned California, New Mexico, and Washington that they have 30 days to comply with federal English proficiency rules for truck drivers or risk losing millions in federal funding.

The announcement follows a Department of Transportation investigation into an August 12 crash on the Florida Turnpike in which three people were killed. Authorities said the driver, Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant, caused the crash after making an illegal U-turn. Singh had been granted a commercial driver’s license in both California and Washington. New Mexico law enforcement also failed to administer an English proficiency test when Singh was stopped for speeding in July, investigators found.

“We at DOT and Federal Motor Carriers, we are not going to tolerate states that don’t comply with the rules that come from this department,” Duffy said at a press conference. “We are going to give these states 30 days to come into compliance with truck drivers speaking proficiently the English language, or we’re going to look at the federal funding that they receive under the Motor Carriers Safety Assistance Program.”

Under the mandate, California could lose $30 million, Washington $10 million, and New Mexico $7 million in funding if they fail to enforce the standards. The English proficiency rule was announced in May by the Trump administration and took effect at the end of June.

“When we did that, there was a lot of press that complained to us that we were being unfair to people, that we were being mean to people,” Duffy said. “And what we said was, ‘no, this is a safety issue.’ Making sure drivers of very heavy, 80,000-pound rigs can speak the language is truly a critical safety issue.”

A Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration review found that between June 25 and August 21, California allowed at least 23 drivers with documented English proficiency violations in other states to continue driving. Washington allowed six such drivers to remain on the road, while New Mexico allowed seven.

Duffy said additional enforcement measures would be considered if the states fail to comply within the 30-day deadline.

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Young Woman’s Life Cut Short After Hospital Visit for Routine Procedure

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A 22-year-old law graduate recently died after suffering a rare but catastrophic allergic reaction during a routine CT scan, shining a spotlight on the risks of a procedure millions undergo every year.

Letícia Paul, who had recently earned her law degree and was pursuing postgraduate studies in real estate and business law, went into anaphylactic shock moments after receiving an iodinated contrast dye, Jam Press reported.

The incident occurred at Hospital Regional Alto Vale in Rio do Sul, in Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Doctors intubated the young woman and placed her under intensive care, but she died on Aug. 20, less than 24 hours later.

Paul had originally visited the hospital for a scan linked to her history of kidney stones. (Read more from “Young Woman’s Life Cut Short After Hospital Visit for Routine Procedure” HERE)

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Report: Walz Denied Catholic Schools’ Security Funding Despite $17 Billion Surplus

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) declined requests from Catholic leaders for small-scale security funding for nonpublic schools, despite a record $17.6 billion budget surplus and the approval of similar grants for public schools, according to a report by the National Catholic Register.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference — which represents the state’s six dioceses — sent letters to Walz in both 2022 and 2023 requesting that Catholic and other nonpublic schools be included in state-funded school security programs. The group cited ongoing concerns over school shootings, referencing the March 2023 Covenant School massacre in Nashville, where six people were killed by Audrey Hale, a 28-year-old who identified as transgender.

“There are approximately 72,000 students enrolled in Independent, Catholic, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim nonpublic schools in our state,” the Catholic Conference wrote in a 2023 letter. “The exclusion of one sector of schools … is a discriminatory act against our students.”

The organization asked Walz to expand eligibility for the proposed $50 million Building and Cyber Security Grant Program, which was included in his budget recommendation but applied only to public schools. Since 2020, nonpublic schools have lobbied to join Minnesota’s Safe Schools Program, which provides state aid for emergency response training, security upgrades, mental health services, and other resources. Currently, the program does not cover nonpublic schools, charter schools, or intermediate school districts.

The Catholic Conference also noted that in 2022, when a bill to provide $44 per student in security aid to all schools stalled, Minnesota’s bishops urged Walz to call a special session to approve the expansion. Despite bipartisan support in the legislature — including from several members of Walz’s own Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party — no special session was called.

Meanwhile, in 2023 Walz approved state funding for a “trans refuge” law designed to protect individuals seeking gender-related medical treatments in Minnesota, according to advocacy group OutFront Minnesota.

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Kentucky Judge Slain by Sheriff Accused of Running Courthouse ‘Like a Brothel’

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New allegations have surfaced against a rural Kentucky judge who was gunned down in his own chambers last year — painting a disturbing picture of a courthouse turned into a hub for sex-for-favors schemes and illicit parties.

Judge Kevin Mullins, 53, was shot execution-style inside his Letcher County chambers last September, allegedly by his longtime friend and county sheriff, Shawn Stines. Now, one of Mullins’ reported victims claims the slain judge used his position of power to coerce young women into performing sexual favors in exchange for leniency, money, or simply to stay out of trouble.

Tya Adams told NewsNation’s Banfield that she was pressured into taking part in what she described as sex parties involving Mullins and other influential figures in the small town of Whitesburg.

“We would do sex parties and perform shows and have sex with them for money, things like that,” Adams alleged. “It was consensual. But it was the thing that we were so young, and then they used it against us and to destroy our lives later.”

Adams said she feared Child Protective Services could be used against her if she refused, describing a culture where silence was expected. “Who would believe it anyway? Because the whole town was doing it. Nobody cares. They’re all swingers. It’s all a big party to them. It was just so normal,” she said.

Sarah Davis, a former deputy jailer in Letcher County, told the outlet she had long heard “nasty and sickening” stories about Mullins’ alleged misconduct and was even invited to one of the parties herself.

“Pretty much everybody in the county knows,” Davis said.

The allegations align with past claims. In 2022, during a probe into deputy sheriff Ben Fields — later jailed for raping and coercing a female inmate — another woman told investigators that Mullins was involved. She said she personally saw the judge engaged in sex acts in his chambers and alleged Fields had videotaped encounters involving young women.

It remains unclear whether Mullins’ alleged misconduct was tied to his violent death. Prosecutors say Sheriff Stines, who had been close friends with the judge for decades, had lunch with Mullins just hours before the killing. Surveillance footage reportedly shows Stines making several phone calls from the judge’s office before opening fire.

After the shooting, Stines surrendered immediately, telling officers: “They’re trying to kidnap my wife and kid.” His attorney has described the killing as a crime of passion brought on by “extreme emotional disturbance.”

The allegations against Mullins — of running his courthouse “like a brothel” — have further shaken the small Appalachian community still reeling from his killing.

How Fauci And A Deep State Cabal Suppressed Intel In Historic Deception

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Senior American intelligence officials concealed classified intelligence that COVID-19 came from a lab from the president and the public, granting Anthony Fauci’s inner circle extraordinary influence while silencing their own spy scientists, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Evidence pointing to a lab leak included signals intelligence collected from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders in 2019 between Beijing and Wuhan revealing a major emergency, one former official told the DCNF. An increasingly political deep state concealed it from President Donald Trump during the first two months of the pandemic, deflecting blame from China as political rival Joe Biden sought to lay responsibility for the pandemic squarely at Trump’s feet.

Higher-ups continued to dismiss evidence for a lab leak as the fodder for a conspiracy theory and Trump’s hardline stance against China, deceiving millions of Americans about a disease that upended their lives and felled loved ones. Spy scientists at four intelligence agencies and four other government officials spoke to the DCNF on condition of anonymity to reveal previously unreported details about censored intelligence under two presidential administrations.

Spy scientists also decoded engineering in the COVID-19 genome — clues Chinese authorities were powerless to hide, two spy scientists said. But this evidence was conspicuously omitted from public reports released by the intelligence community under then-President Biden, as senior officials instead elevated the analyses of Fauci’s inner circle, who argued the virus was assuredly natural. The omission prompted a formal complaint from one agency, one spy scientist said.

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard told the DCNF she would hold the intelligence community accountable by working with whistleblowers, reviewing classified material, and investigating where taxpayer funds may have helped create the COVID-19 virus. (Read more from “How Fauci And A Deep State Cabal Suppressed Intel In Historic Deception” HERE)

Judge Rejects Trump DOJ Bid to Unseal Epstein Grand Jury Transcript, Calls It a ‘Diversion’

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A federal judge has rejected an effort by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice to unseal grand jury testimony related to Jeffrey Epstein, describing the request as a “diversion” from broader records in the government’s possession.

Judge Richard Berman, a Clinton appointee, issued a 14-page ruling on Wednesday denying the DOJ’s petition, which had been filed in July 2025 at the direction of President Donald Trump. The judge wrote that the transcript in question was “merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct,” adding that the government itself should be responsible for making a more comprehensive disclosure of records tied to the Epstein case.

“The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein files,” Berman noted. “By comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession.”

The ruling follows two earlier rejections of attempts to unseal similar transcripts in both Epstein’s Florida proceedings and the Ghislaine Maxwell case.

Attorneys representing several Epstein victims raised objections to the DOJ’s approach, questioning whether proper notice and safeguards were provided. In an August 5 letter to Judge Berman, victims’ lawyers wrote that their clients felt “deep anxiety” about the adequacy of redactions. The attorneys criticized the government for failing to notify victims before moving to unseal the grand jury materials, a step they argued could compromise privacy and safety.

Berman echoed those concerns, noting that maintaining confidentiality in certain aspects of the case remains crucial to protecting individuals involved.

Meanwhile, congressional scrutiny of the Epstein files has intensified. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer announced on August 5 that the DOJ would begin providing Epstein-related records to his committee by the end of that week, though the process of reviewing and redacting sensitive information would take time.

“There are many records in DOJ’s custody, and it will take the Department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted,” Comer said in a statement, adding that he welcomed efforts by the Trump administration to promote transparency.

Why Did Trump Push for the Transcript?

The unusual element in this case remains the Trump administration’s decision to prioritize unsealing a single grand jury transcript rather than pursuing a broader release of Epstein-related files. Critics, including Judge Berman, have suggested the request distracted from a more comprehensive accounting of the government’s records.

The timing of the move also drew attention. Just days before the filing, a DOJ memo stating Epstein had no “client list” and died by suicide prompted frustration among Trump’s political base, who demanded fuller disclosure. Whether the push to unseal the transcript was motivated by those political pressures, or by a broader policy commitment to transparency, remains unclear.