[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Washington couple accused of attempting an 'honor killing' by trying to strangle their teenage daughter outside a suburban high school have both been found not guilty of attempted murder.
Ihsan and Zahraa Ali stood trial for the shocking broad-daylight attack last fall outside Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington State where prosecutors said the pair tried to kill their 17-year-old daughter after she refused an arranged marriage.
After three days of deliberations, jurors convicted Ihsan Ali of assault and unlawful imprisonment.
His wife Zahraa was found guilty of violating a court order but acquitted of the more serious charges, including attempted murder, assault, and unlawful imprisonment.
Ihsan, who remains in custody, faces up to 14 months in prison for assault and an additional 12 months for unlawful imprisonment while Zahraa was released on Thursday on personal recognizance and is under strict orders to remain in Thurston County and avoid any contact with her daughter.
The case drew national attention last October after terrifying video footage emerged of Ihsan Ali putting his 17-year-old daughter, Fatima Ali, in a chokehold outside her high school, allegedly in retaliation for refusing an arranged marriage and for dating an American boy - actions he reportedly viewed as bringing shame upon the family.
The viral footage first published by the Daily Mail showed Fatima collapsing on the pavement, only for her father to continue strangling her unconscious body for nearly 20 seconds, according to prosecutors.
'She's unconscious, and he continues to strangle her around the neck for another 15-18 seconds and would have continued to do so even longer but for the intervention of those adults,' prosecutor Heather Stone told jurors at the trial.
Witnesses testified that even after Fatima went limp, Ihsan refused to let go.
Among the rescuers were Fatima's boyfriend Isiah, and multiple classmates who repeatedly punched, kicked, and stomped the 44-year-old father in a desperate effort to break the chokehold.
In the most gut-wrenching moment of the trial, Fatima, now 18, took to the stand to testify against her own parents.
'Did you have any fear?' Stone asked. 'Yes.' 'Fear of what?'
'Of dying,' Fatima choked out, her voice breaking into a sob.
She was barely able to respond 'no' when asked if she could say anything during the attack.
'[I'm] heartbroken for what my dad did,' she said, sobbing as she described losing consciousness four times during the attack.
Fatima recalled the sensation of dirt on her face, pain in her neck, and her father's arms around her throat.
She said she saw 'darkness' before glimpsing her boyfriend and another friend standing over her.
The court heard how Fatima had run away that morning after discovering her parents had bought her a one-way plane ticket to Iraq, allegedly to force her into marriage.
She fled with just a bag of clothes and $100 she had stolen from her mother.
But when school ended that day, her parents were waiting for her at the bus stop.
Ihsan's fury erupted when she refused to come home. Witnesses said he punched Isiah in the face, then lunged at his daughter.
Prosecutors argued the attack was rooted in a planned 'honor killing,' a culturally motivated act meant to restore perceived family honor.
While the court barred the phrase from being used in front of jurors, investigators and witnesses referenced it repeatedly in early police reports and pretrial interviews.
Fatima had told police at the time that her father threatened to kill her several times for refusing the arranged marriage and dating a non-Muslim boy.
She said she feared she'd never return if sent to Iraq. Prosecutors attempted to argue that motive in court, but Judge Christine Schaller excluded it, citing potential prejudice.
Without the motive, prosecutors leaned heavily on video evidence and eyewitness testimony.
Bus driver John Denicola testified: 'Obviously, she was in distress, her eyes were rolling into the back of her head, you could tell she was not able to breathe… The look on [Ihsan's] face and the way he was squeezing, he was choking her.'
Another rescuer, Josh Wagner, a US Army veteran, testified he 'held Ihsan down' until police arrived.
'Her face was changing color… it was very obvious she was being choked,' he said.
Zahraa Ali's fate was more complex. While prosecutors alleged she attempted to finish the job after her husband was subdued - with Fatima testifying she felt her mother grabbing at her neck - the jury rejected the murder charge, citing insufficient evidence of intent.
'And when you look at that video, you see she does not provide any aid at any time to her child, zero aid,' prosecutor Stone argued. 'That is not an effort to comfort her child.'
But defense attorney Tim Leary insisted Zahraa was simply 'trying to protect [Fatima] from the chaos.'
'You will see my client, her mom, come and attempt to help her daughter,' he said. 'She is holding her daughter, she's not holding on to her neck.'
Leary also reminded the jury that Fatima initially told police she didn't believe her mother tried to hurt her - though she later changed her mind.
'She was just trying to protect me from the chaos,' Fatima told officers. On the stand, she said it was more that she 'didn't want to believe' her mother would harm her.
Throughout the trial, defense attorneys hammered home one point that there was no intent to kill.
'There's no nefarious intent,' said Ihsan's lawyer Erik Kaeding. 'There's no intent to hurt anybody badly, there's no intent to kill anybody. There's an intent to take your daughter home.'
Zahraa's attorney said similar. 'They certainly could've done things differently, but that does not make this a crime,' Leary said.
Legal experts say prosecutors faced an uphill battle from the outset, largely due to pretrial rulings that barred them from discussing the alleged motive.
Judge Schaller ruled that discussing arranged marriage, threats of honor killings, or family history of abuse would unfairly bias the jury.
As a result, what began as a trial labeled by the media and public as an 'honor killing case' never once used the phrase inside the courtroom.
Prosecutor Olivia Zhou never alluded to the motive in her opening statement, focusing instead on the severity of the attack.
Ihsan Ali remains behind bars until his mid-August sentencing. His wife Zahraa is free but under strict conditions.
Fatima herself has not spoken publicly since the verdict.
[FoxNews] Vice President JD Vance revealed that he is "obsessed" with mysterious UFO videos during an appearance on the "Ruthless" podcast on Friday.
"I'm obsessed with the whole UFO thing. What’s actually going on? What were those videos all about? What’s actually happening?" he questioned. "I haven’t gotten to the bottom of it yet, but we’re only six months in."
"The August [congressional] recess is, in part, me going to try and dive to the bottom of the whole UFO thing last year," the vice president joked.
Vance jokingly offered to take the show’s hosts to Area 51 "once I get to the bottom of it."
Although the vice president didn't specify the exact "videos" that have captivated his attention, there was no shortage of videos and news headlines related to aerial phenomena last year.
Last November, the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) which was aimed at getting to the bottom of the Pentagon's investigations into UAPs, and heard the testimony of numerous experts and witnesses working with or in the alleged programs.
A former Pentagon official testified to Congress that the U.S. government has evidence that "we are not alone in the cosmos," but that a "cabal" of officials is hiding the information.
The official, Luis Elizondo, is the former head of the Defense Department's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was tasked with investigating UAPs. He and other witnesses testified before the House Oversight Committee.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Over the past 24 hours, 15 flares were recorded on the Sun. This was reported on August 2 by the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy of the Space Research Institute and the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"GOES X-ray monitors registered 15 solar flares yesterday, August 1, compared to six events the day before," the lab's website says.
Currently, solar flare activity is showing signs of stabilization, scientists noted. It is also assumed that the growth of sunspots has stopped. Thus, the burst was limited in nature and was localized within one day.
"The series of events had no impact on Earth," the laboratory added.
Now we’ll know what it is when it shows up in news reports, though it’s not at all clear to me why they did it.
At a ceremony in Las Anod on Friday, Interior Minister Ali Yusuf Ali Hoosh reaffirmed the government’s commitment to supporting the fledgling regional administration. He pledged increased federal aid designed to strengthen local governance and deliver vital services to the community.
Minister Hoosh described the formation of the Northeast Regional State as a major step towards national unity and political stability, highlighting the importance of cooperation between federal and regional authorities.
The three-day conference, which concluded on Wednesday, brought together elders, politicians, and civil society leaders from the Sool, Sanaag, and Ayn areas. Attendees unanimously agreed to establish the new federal member state, naming Las Anod as its capital.
The meeting formally dissolved the SSC-Khatumo interim government and adopted a new constitution, solidifying the region’s integration within Somalia’s federal system. The declaration stressed local ownership and resolution of longstanding disputes through inclusive dialogue.
The establishment of the Northeast Regional State represents a significant change in Somalia’s political landscape, particularly amid competing territorial claims from Somaliland ...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells.... The move is expected to boost collaboration between the federal government and local authorities while presenting new challenges in Somalia’s ongoing state-building efforts.
Puntland Condemns New Northeastern State as Threat to Regional Stability
[Garowe] The Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... regional administration has strongly rejected the recently formed Northeastern regional administration, claiming jurisdiction over the northern Somali regions of Sool, Sanaag, and Buuhoodle.
Speaker of the Puntland Parliament, Abdirisaq Ahmed Mohamed (Qaraaje), described the new entity as a short-sighted political project aimed at sowing discord among communities traditionally united in defending their territories.
“It is regrettable to see attempts to pit communities who have jointly defended their lands against common challenges. We will closely monitor the operations of this administration established in Las Anod. Sanaag region has never been ruled by an externally imposed authority,” Qaraaje said during a parliamentary session in Garoowe.
He further noted that Puntland had previously recognized the SSC-Khaatumo administration due to the wartime circumstances then prevailing, but now views the emergence of Waqooyi Bari as a direct assault on Puntland’s unity.
Qaraaje also accused the Federal Government of Somalia of trying to fragment the country by encouraging regional divisions, warning that such moves risk igniting conflict among the Somali people.
In an extraordinary cabinet meeting held in Hargeisa, Somaliland’s Council of Ministers issued a statement rejecting the new administration and reaffirmed that the regions of Sool, Sanaag, and Togdheer remain an integral part of Somaliland’s territory. The cabinet also adopted firm decisions aimed at addressing the emerging political tensions.
Speaking to the press, Information Minister Ahmed Yasin Sheikh Ali Ayanle said Somaliland’s borders were established at independence in 1960, before its union with Somalia, and that the people of the contested regions had fully participated in the formation of the Somaliland state three decades ago.
The government accused Somalia’s federal authorities of instigating the creation of the new regional entity to influence upcoming national elections. It is alleged that arms and international aid meant for stabilization were being diverted to escalate the conflict in Sool and Sanaag.
Despite the tensions, the Somaliland government said it remains open to peaceful dialogue with local communities in eastern Sool in an effort to end the conflict in Lasanod. The information minister noted that peacebuilding efforts in parts of Sanaag had already yielded progress.
Somaliland’s cabinet concluded by affirming its readiness to defend its territory against any attempts at division and dismissed the new Northeastern State administration as unrepresentative of the local population.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] In China, a diving enthusiast got lost in an underwater cave and spent five days there. This was reported on August 2 by the Chinese newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP).
I used to adore scuba diving, but this is why I never felt the need to do the more advanced cave diving. Serious courage is needed.
According to the publication, on July 19, 40-year-old amateur diver Wang went missing shortly after diving into a river with his friend. It turned out that the man accidentally swam into a huge underwater cave located at a depth of 9 m and got lost in it. The diver was able to survive only because he discovered an air pocket in the cave.
Police launched a search operation with the participation of professional scuba divers, who were able to find Van. In total, the man spent five days and five nights in the cave and after the rescue felt well enough to walk to the ambulance on his own.
Wang said he had been eating raw fish. When he was found, the first thing he asked for was a cigarette.
[Jonfleetwood.com via Zero] The CIA’s infamous Cold War propaganda and psychological operation (PSYOP) program never died—it just turned inward...
The question isn’t whether the government is manipulating Americans, but how they’re doing it right now—through intelligence leaks, media collusion, psychological tactics, and taxpayer-funded propaganda.
That was the warning from U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard during a searing July 31 interview, where she confirmed that intelligence insiders are actively using corporate media to manipulate the American people and sabotage President Donald Trump’s agenda—echoing the tactics of ’Operation Mockingbird.’
Every major news organization or its parent companies, from FOX News to CNN, are owned by globalist-aligned asset managers like BlackRock, an offical partner of the anti-American-sovereignty World Economic Forum (WEF).
"There are people within the intelligence community who believe that their will is more important than the will of the American people," Gabbard told conservative host Benny Johnson. "[They] will weaponize intelligence by leaking it to their friends within the mainstream media with the intent of undermining President Trump’s agenda."
Mockingbird Reloaded: Intelligence Tools Aimed at Americans
Once a covert CIA program used to plant propaganda in foreign and domestic media, Operation Mockingbird infiltrated major U.S. newsrooms throughout the 1950s—1970s.
It was exposed during the Church Committee hearings, where Congress revealed that the agency maintained relationships with hundreds of journalists to shape public perception.
Today, Gabbard says, that same playbook is being deployed against Americans.
Only now, it’s fully digital, algorithmic, and taxpayer-funded.
"They are subverting the will of the people and therefore undermining the Constitution," Gabbard warned.
Mockingbird Reloaded: Intelligence Tools Aimed at Americans
Once a covert CIA program used to plant propaganda in foreign and domestic media, Operation Mockingbird infiltrated major U.S. newsrooms throughout the 1950s—1970s.
It was exposed during the Church Committee hearings, where Congress revealed that the agency maintained relationships with hundreds of journalists to shape public perception.
Today, Gabbard says, that same playbook is being deployed against Americans.
Only now, it’s fully digital, algorithmic, and taxpayer-funded.
"They are subverting the will of the people and therefore undermining the Constitution," Gabbard warned.
From CIA to CDC: Government Propaganda Is Now a Domestic Industry
Gabbard’s warning comes as Congress continues to uncover a parallel propaganda apparatus inside U.S. health agencies.
A damning House Energy and Commerce Committee report released in October 2024 found that the Biden Administration spent $900 million in taxpayer funds on a COVID-19 propaganda campaign that intentionally misled the public.
"The Biden-Harris administration caused Americans to lose trust in the public health system," said Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), accusing the CDC and NIH of using ads containing "erroneous or unproven information."
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Ford builds more cars in America than any other automaker — but instead of reaping the rewards, it’s being hit hardest by new trade rules.
Detroit-based Ford assembles 80 percent of its US-sold vehicles domestically. But it still relies on imported parts and aluminum — which now face punishing duties.
Under new trade deals with Japan, the EU, and South Korea, many imported goods are subject to a 15 percent tariff. That includes cars from Ford's big rivals Toyota, VW and Kia.
That rate is far below the 25 percent tariff applied to auto parts and the 50 percent tariff on aluminum introduced this spring.
The result is that Ford’s American-first strategy is becoming uncompetitive.
Ford expects to pay $2.5 billion in tariffs over the next year alone.
'Ford has more reason to complain,' said Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska.
'If you're now lowering tariffs and letting more cars and content flow into the U.S., that relatively disadvantages Ford more than others.'
'I admire Ford,' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a recent CNBC interview.
Bessent said he hopes to iron out the 'idiosyncratic' burdens that current tariffs are placing on the company by cutting a deal with Canada to address the cost of importing aluminum.
Nonetheless the situation as it currently stands is a direct contradiction of what Trump has said he aims to achieve with tariffs.
The Presidents has repeatedly claimed he wants to bring back a golden era of Made-In-America manufacturing with the car industry as a cornerstone.
US carmakers have welcomed the support after years of struggling to compete with foreign rivals who can take advantage of lower labor costs and less strict regulations.
'For decades now, it has not been a level playing field for U.S. automakers globally, with either tariffs or trade barriers,' General Motors chief executive Mary Barra said earlier this year.
'So I think tariffs is one tool that the administration can use to level the playing field.'
However, the tariffs have now made things more difficult and more expensive.
Automakers have been hit by the steel and aluminum tariffs as well as direct duties on auto parts.
Furthermore in the previous era of the North American Free Trade Agreement businesses such as GM, Ford and Stellantis invested heavily in manufacturing in Mexico and Canada.
Therefore there are costs to untangling all that. Ford made the right call to invest in Mexico and Canada under previous conditions — did they complain then, too? — and now they will have to make investments under the new conditions. That is the lot of a company that sources best price wherever it might be found around the world. The whole point is to encourage seeking domestic suppliers, even if they now need to be created.
Both countries have been swept up in Trump's roiling trade war with temporary tariffs, threats and U-turns causing chaos for entire industries.
The storm does not appear to have passed either with Trump last night unexpectedly raising Canada's tariff rate to 35 percent.
Mexico's rate currently remains at 25 percent for the next 90 days.
The knock-on effect for consumers has been an increase in sticker prices from both domestically made and imported cars.
However, there are also extended cost shocks as businesses claw back profits by removing cheap financing deals.
[FoxNews] A 1992 law prohibits most abortion services at the VA
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will announce Friday that it is reversing a Biden-era exception allowing abortion services to be provided to veterans, in what the department cited as likely counter to the current medical benefits package prescribed by law.
In a memo obtained by Fox News Digital, the VA said it will return its medical package and "CHAMPVA" benefits to the time preceding a September 2022 agency rule that removed the long-standing abortion restrictions.
The 1999 medical benefits package that remains intact, prescribed under the outline of a 1992 law, does not authorize abortion services because they are not considered "needed" under the statute.
"It is without question that VA has the authority to bar provision of abortion services through the VA medical benefits package to veterans," the memo read, adding that the former VA leadership made its adjustment in favor of providing abortions in response to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade.
Then-Rep. Gillespie Montgomery, D-Miss., laid out in his 1992 Veterans Health Care Act that the agency could provide women with multiple healthcare services, including Papanicolaou Tests ("Pap-smears"), mammography and "general reproductive care, including the management of menopause."
However, the law explicitly precluded "infertility services [and] abortions" unless they relate to a pregnancy with "risks of complication [that] are increased by a service-connected condition."
"Prior to the Biden administration’s politically motivated change in 2022, federal law and longstanding precedent across Democrat and Republican administrations prevented VA from providing abortions and abortion counseling," a VA spokesperson told Fox News Digital in discussing the policy reversal.
"VA’s proposed rule will reinstate the pre-Biden bipartisan policy, bringing the department back in line with historical norms."
The VA memo added that the Dobbs decision was intended to prevent federal overreach and return control of abortion policy to the states, and that the agency prior to current Secretary Doug Collins’ tenure "did the exact opposite" of what it said its 2022 policy change was intended to do in that regard.
"[It] creat[ed] a purported federal entitlement to abortion for veterans where none had existed before, and without regard to state law," the VA said.
"For nearly 50 years, and across a slew of federal programs, including Medicaid, the Child Health Insurance Program, TriCare, Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, and others, Congress has consistently drawn a bright line between elective abortion and health care services that taxpayers would support."
The agency also emphasized that its policy reversal will not prevent pregnant women facing life-threatening circumstances from receiving care in those instances.
[DailyWire] The move opens the door to an elite federal workforce — and a major victory for President Donald Trump.
A decades-old court order that blocked the federal government from using tests to measure job applicants’ skills was terminated by a D.C. judge on Friday, setting the stage for an overhaul of the federal workforce that could be one of President Donald Trump’s most lasting achievements.
In 1981, Angel Luevano sued the federal government over the Professional and Administrative Career Examination, a test that helped identify the best and brightest out of the tens of thousands who apply for government jobs each year. Luevano argued that the test kept too many blacks and Hispanics out of government, and, in the waning days of President Jimmy Carter’s administration, OPM agreed to pause the test for five years.
Forty-four years later, the “Luevano Consent Decree” was somehow still intact. In January, the Trump administration filed a brief challenging the agreement — a feat which required reopening a decades-closed court case in which the original judge had died. The administration argued that it was doubtful the decree was ever appropriate, and that, with Supreme Court case law outlawing affirmative action, it was certainly not now.
Angel Luevano is still alive, and agreed to terminate the consent decree, court papers show. Luevano was represented by lawyers from Hispanic and black civil rights groups, two of whom did not return a request for comment.
For almost half a century, the federal government has operated like a college that didn’t look at SAT scores when admitting students. Rescinding the Luevano Consent Decree could take the government from safety-school status to Ivy League.
Another chopper carrier is being converted so soon Japan will have 2 modern aircraft carriers
It started with a distant roar—more than just the sound of a jet engine. This was history arriving at 150 knots. A sleek F-35B Lightning II, its gray fuselage shimmering against the steel-blue Pacific sky, descended like a bird of prey. As it hovered and then touched down on the deck of the JS Kaga, a Japanese warship transformed, the world changed with it.
This wasn’t a rehearsal. This wasn’t ceremonial. This was the first time a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B fighter landed on Japanese steel. A real operational integration—proof that two nations, once enemies on these same waters, now stood shoulder to shoulder, prepared for anything.
The western Pacific has always been a crucible of power. And now, as tensions flare in the Taiwan Strait, as Chinese naval patrols grow bolder and more frequent, and as Taiwan looms larger in the geopolitical chess game, the sight of U.S. stealth fighters operating from a Japanese carrier sends an unmistakable message: the alliance is more than symbolic. It’s operational. Lethal. Ready.
[Regnum] The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS flying through the Solar System may be an alien ship, Harvard scientist and astronomer Avi Loeb said on August 1. But like all previous space objects that we’ve noticed thus far, it probably isn’t. Still, it’s lots of fun to imagine it might be.
"It could come to save us or destroy us. We'd better be prepared for both and check whether all interstellar objects are rocks," the British newspaper Daily Mail reports the scientist as saying.
The authors of the article noted that Loeb has been tracking the interstellar object since its first discovery on July 1. According to the astronomer's predictions, 3I/ATLAS could reach Earth between November 21 and December 5, 2025.
It is also assumed that its size is quite large, which is not typical for an object arriving from outside the Solar System.
On July 26, Cornell University scientists noticed anomalous characteristics in the 3I/ATLAS object approaching Earth and suggested that it was a technological device launched with hostile purposes. The researchers reported an unusual flight trajectory and suggested that the object was controlled by extraterrestrial intelligence.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells....
