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A federal judge warned the Trump administration she would start contempt proceedings if it deported Iranian detainees without first notifying her court, according to court records unsealed Thursday that reveal secret U.S. talks with Iran about deportations during the war, the Associated Press reported.“We are at war with a country where the President of the United States has said, as recently as two or three days ago, if not yesterday, that it is essentially lawless,” U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said at the Oct. 15 hearing, pointing to Trump’s own accusation that Iran had killed tens of thousands of protesters.Reyes then asked whether the administration still planned to send people back to a country the U.S. was bombing, where she said they faced “a serious threat of certain death.”“Yes, your honor,” DOJ lawyer Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel replied. “The government is executing lawful orders of removal.”Reyes required the administration to alert the court when deportation plans are finalized and give five days’ written notice before carrying them out. In a filing Wednesday, the DOJ argued the threat of sanctions effectively turned the notice requirement into an injunction, according to the report.The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, which brought the lawsuit, said Thursday Iranian consular officials had told at least 12 ICE detainees in the past week that they would be flown to Iran through Pakistan. The group said U.S. immigration authorities had given those detainees nothing in writing.The lawsuit alleges that U.S. immigration officials shared confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with Tehran. The Department of Homeland Security has denied sharing asylum application records with Iran."Activists abroad have expressed concern about deportees returning to Iran, whose theocracy has been cracking down on intellectuals and where the government vociferously cracks down on any dissent," the AP reported Thursday.

First lady Melania Trump faced a torrent of outrage after lavishing praise on a Kremlin official whose past has haunted Ukrainian families.Melania Trump hosted Russian and Ukrainian representatives at the White House on Thursday, where she thanked Russian human rights commissioner Yana Lantratova, saying her "dedication brings hope and dignity to those devastated by war," according to a video posted by journalist Aaron Rupar.Ukraine's security service accused Lantratova in 2024 of helping deport children from occupied Kherson to Russia, the Ukrainian news outlet Babel reported.The gathering followed a humanitarian ceasefire in the occupied city of Oleshky that the White House credited Melania with helping broker, the Associated Press noted.BBC local radio correspondent Euan MacDonald laid out the international penalties and Ukrainian charges Lantratova faces, asking if Melania was seriously thanking Lantratova, "who is under international sanctions by the EU, US, UK, and other nations, and who has been charged in absentia in Ukraine for her alleged role in facilitating the unlawful transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia?""What a disgusting spectacle," MacDonald blasted. "Shame on America."Nicolas Tenzer, a French foreign policy expert, similarly pointed out that Melania was "praising a person sanctioned by the EU, the UK, Ukraine...and the US for her active role in the deportation and forced russification of Ukrainian kids."Former U.S. ambassador Luis Moreno echoed the ire, lamenting, "You know, all kidding aside. FLOTUS not only invited this war criminal who kidnaps Ukrainian children to Russia, into the White House, but she's honoring and praising her. Beyond disgusting."Branislav Slantchev, a political science professor at the University of California San Diego, turned his fire toward the Trump administration for cozying up to Moscow."This entire f— administration is trying to normalize relations with the war criminals who created the humanitarian disaster these two are now 'solving,'" Slantchev railed.Retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts, a former International Space Station commander who now comments on politics, declared that "the Trump family and MAGA admiration of Russia and Putin is one of the most disgusting episodes in American history."

First lady Melania Trump hosted a White House event on a Russian-occupied city’s ceasefire without mentioning President Donald Trump, the Daily Beast reported.The Thursday gathering marked a temporary, localized truce in Oleshky that ended Nov. 1. The Daily Beast reported it let humanitarian aid reach the city and covered the departure of roughly 800 people across six days, and the event came as the president has not made good on his claim that he could end the war in Ukraine on his first day back in office.Melania Trump said she was involved at each stage of what she called a “sophisticated ceasefire,” including reviewing roads and evacuation routes. The Beast said she learned of the crisis in September and served as the sole go-between.Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev credited her with a key coordinating role and said Vladimir Putin personally issued the needed instructions. He added that Putin appreciates the president’s peacemaking effort. Ukrainian politician David Arakhamia praised her work, and ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets gave her the Order of Princess Olga, 1st Class, on behalf of President Volodymyr Zelensky.She said the truce would not have happened without Putin or Zelensky and that their cooperation sets a “meaningful precedent.” She gave officials letters to carry to both leaders.Nobody in the room acknowledged Putin’s invasion caused the crisis, The Beast noted.Melania's role in the ceasefire agreement has been questioned by some observers, who point out that the Pope was involved in ceasefire discussions for Oleshky before Melania's involvement was ever publicly acknowledged.

Hollywood star turned right-wing commentator Russell Brand has been convicted of rape and sexual assault by a London jury.Jurors at Southwark Crown Court returned guilty verdicts Thursday on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault, TMZ reported. The jury found him not guilty of two other rape charges and one count of attempted indecent assault. Brand, 51, had denied all the charges.The judge signaled that prison time is all but certain. “Obviously a custodial sentence of some length will result,” the judge told Brand after the verdict. He is scheduled to be sentenced Monday.Best known for Hollywood comedies like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Get Him to the Greek," Brand reinvented himself in recent years as an online commentator popular on the right, building a massive following with anti-establishment videos. Deadline described him as a “MAGA outrider,” and after he was charged last year, Fox News host turned podcaster Tucker Carlson called on the Trump administration to “rescue” him from what Carlson called “political and absurd” charges.The trial featured testimony from several women who accused Brand of sexual misconduct, according to TMZ. One accuser, recalling an alleged 1999 assault, described his behavior as “lizard-like.” Another told jurors that after Brand raped her, he said he wanted to “push [her] further.”During the trial, the judge ordered a not-guilty verdict on one count of indecent assault, and prosecutors then brought a new charge of attempted indecent assault, on which the jury acquitted him.TMZ reported that Laura Brand, his wife, backed him throughout the proceedings and took the stand in his defense. She described him as a wonderful father and an “amazing, attentive husband.”

The Trump administration sparked immediate outrage after it conducted what some described as a "secret" bombing campaign on the eve of the midterm elections. Barak Ravid, global affairs correspondent for Axios, reported Monday night that a U.S. fighter jet destroyed an Iranian weapon on Qeshm Island. The strikes mark a significant escalation in the conflict as the Trump administration braces for a midterm election where Republicans are expected to lose the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate as well. "Senior U.S. official: A U.S. Army fighter jet conducted a self-defense strike and destroyed a surface-to-air missile launcher on Qeshm Island after the Revolutionary Guards launched an anti-aircraft missile from it," Ravid posted on X. The move outraged Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council."After eight months of an illegal war, there was finally some hope that a diplomatic agreement might be within reach and this war could end through negotiations rather than spiral into the violent scenarios being threatened after the midterm elections. But these deeply alarming revelations suggest we may be heading in precisely the opposite direction," he said in a statement.

Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein reports that a military source of his gives even odds that the U.S. will strike Iran after the midterms — but says any attack would be smaller than first planned.Klippenstein writes that President Donald Trump’s plan for a decisive attack on Iran is now in doubt. Trump said last month the U.S. would not attack before the election, but Klippenstein says target sets were drafted and forces were being positioned, including a third aircraft carrier and two amphibious groups carrying about two dozen additional F-35s.Gulf Arab allies, he says, told Washington they would help defend themselves but would not join an offensive.He reports the plan frayed further when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost his majority, leaving planners unable to count on Israel until a new government forms.In his account, Hegseth told the White House that a sea-based strike without Israel or Gulf bases remained workable. Gulf states objected to hitting energy infrastructure, and some military leaders warned that strikes on power production might violate the law of war. Hegseth responded by firing Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the top Joint Chiefs war planner, Klippenstein says.Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said last week, “Their plan is insane,” and predicted “devastating escalation.”Klippenstein says Murphy was referring to classified briefings. Citing military sources, he writes that Trump has criticized the proposed attack as “uninspired, worthless, and weak” and wants Iran’s nuclear program as its focus. He says Trump hinted on Halloween at hitting one or two remaining nuclear sites.Additionally, Iran has threatened retaliation beyond the Middle East, and people in Trump’s orbit have discussed responding at home with a national emergency, wrote Klippenstein.

Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers of Michigan was paid more than $420,000 while serving on the board of the MITRE Corporation, a consultancy that is now working with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the future of U.S. warfare, according to tax filings reported by Drop Site News.Rogers sat on MITRE’s board of trustees, at one point as chair, for six years until 2023, when he stepped down to run for Senate, the outlet says.IRS records show his yearly pay, and MITRE’s CEO has said Rogers was recruited for his “vast national security expertise.”MITRE is coordinating Project Meridian, which Hegseth announced Sept. 30 as a study of future warfare. Hegseth named tech tycoon Elon Musk, former GOP congressional leader Newt Gingrich, and defense entrepreneur Palmer Luckey as top officials.Drop Site says some have raised conflict-of-interest concerns, noting that former defense officials told NPR the project could push the military toward drones and space systems built by Musk’s and Luckey’s companies. Musk is one of Rogers’ biggest backers through his America PAC.Rogers’ support for the Iran war has been a liability as he has navigated his fight against Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed, the report noted. A poll cited by the outlet shows up to 67 percent of Michigan voters disapprove of the war.In March, Rogers said the war’s end “should be conditional,” but in recent weeks he has been trying to downplay his old hawkishness, even telling Fox News “we need to start wrapping it down.”

Panic spread late Sunday as a prominent conservative figure with deep ties to the Donald Trump administration warned that the president was just days away from deciding whether to use nuclear weapons in his deeply unpopular war against Iran.That conservative figure was Tucker Carlson, formerly a staunch ally of Trump who has since broken with the president over the U.S. war against Iran. Sunday night, Carlson issued a warning that Trump, under pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, may be “within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran,” citing an “informed observer” and other inside connections.“We’ve been sleepwalking toward this moment for months,” Carlson warned in a statement published on social media that had been viewed more than 34 million times as of Monday morning.“Since February, the administration has quietly rewritten America’s nuclear doctrine to make first use of so-called ‘battlefield nukes’ easier and therefore more likely. No one in Washington in either party seems bothered by this. Now we’re on the brink of it.”“Now I can’t sleep,” reacted Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, in a social media post on X Sunday night.Citing “close observers,” Carlson claimed that Trump was “likely” to decide “by next weekend” whether to authorize a nuclear attack, with a “cornered and desperate” Netanyahu, fresh off a rebuke from Israeli voters, aggressively pushing to escalate the U.S. war against Iran in an effort to cling to power.“Tucker is extremely well sourced in the Trump administration and shouldn’t be ignored if this is what he’s being told,” warned journalist Ryan Grim, founder of Drop Site News.The target of the U.S. nuclear strike allegedly under consideration would be Pickaxe Mountain, an Iranian site frequently mentioned by Trump that Israeli intelligence has claimed is being used by Tehran to restart its nuclear program.“Fallout from a ground explosion at Pickaxe Mountain would contaminate the Persian Gulf, poisoning the water supply for 100 million people,” Carlson warned. “And those are just some of the immediate consequences for the region. The rest of the world is every bit as exposed… After the first nuclear strike, World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final.”Former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene argued that such a strike would constitute “crimes against humanity,” and geopolitical analyst Brett Erickson warned that it would “lead to global economic devastation.”Defense journalist Tyler Rogoway, editor-in-chief of The War Zone, argued that, were Trump to authorize the use of nuclear weapons, it would be the United States’ greatest foreign policy error in history.“If a nuclear weapon were used on Pickaxe Mountain in Iran by the US or Israel or an empty field in Ukraine by Russia etc, it doesn’t matter, it would open up Pandora’s box and would make the U.S. and the world dramatically less safe,” Rogoway warned. “This isn’t even a question of how big of a disaster the use, in any manner, of a nuclear weapon would be. It would represent the largest foreign policy error ever by the United States if we were involved. We can only hope this claim isn’t accurate in any way.”