Israel's foreign minister meets with Libyan counterpart in sign of burgeoning ties

JERUSALEM — The Israeli and Libyan foreign ministers met secretly in Italy last week, Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced Sunday, in what it said was the first-ever meeting between the country’s top diplomats.

The meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Najla Mangoush, foreign minister of the Tripoli-based government, marked a small breakthrough for Israel’s government, whose hard-line policies toward the Palestinians have led to a cooling of its burgeoning ties with the Arab world.

“I spoke with the foreign minister about the great potential for relations between the two countries,” Cohen said in a statement. He said the meeting was hosted by Italy’s foreign minister in Rome.

Cohen said he discussed the importance of preserving the heritage of Libya’s former Jewish community, including renovating synagogues and cemeteries. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said talks also touched on possible Israeli assistance for humanitarian issues, agriculture and water management.

A Libyan government official said normalization of relations between the countries was first discussed in a meeting between the Tripoli-based prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and CIA Director William Burns, who visited the Libyan capital in January.

According to the official, Burns proposed that Dbeibah’s government, which is recognized as Libya’s internationally backed government, join the group of four Arab countries that normalized relations with Israel under the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020.

The Libyan premier gave an initial approval, but he was concerned about public backlash in a country known for its past support for the Palestinian cause, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

The late Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, was hostile to Israel and a staunch supporter of the Palestinians, including radical militant groups opposed to peace with Israel.

Libya was plunged into turmoil after a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled Gadhafi, who was later killed, and left the country divided between rival governments in Benghazi in the east and Tripoli in the west. The United Nations has been struggling to shepherd the country toward new elections.

Dbeibah is close to Italy and the West.

Then-President Donald Trump brokered the Abraham Accords. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been eager to expand ties with the Arab world, but his government has come under heavy criticism due to its support for West Bank settlement construction and ongoing military raids on suspected militant strongholds in the occupied territory.

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DeSantis pauses campaigning as Florida faces dual crises

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis canceled campaign events this week as a major storm bears down on the state and in the aftermath of a horrific, racially motivated shooting in Jacksonville.

DeSantis said during a Sunday news conference that he will remain in Florida in the coming days as Tropical Storm Idalia, which could make landfall as a Category 2 hurricane later this week, continues to approach Florida.

“We’re locked in on this, we're going to get this job done,” DeSantis said, later adding when asked if he’s canceling campaign events: “I am here, I am here.”

DeSantis, who is running for president, was scheduled to campaign in South Carolina on Monday.

DeSantis also attended a vigil Sunday night for the shooting that left three people dead in Jacksonville on Saturday before the gunman killed himself. DeSantis began the Sunday news conference by condemning the shooting, which broke out near Edward Waters University, a historically Black university. The three victims were Black and shooter, a 21-year-old armed with an AR-15 and who police said had written a manifesto, was white.

DeSantis said he has spoken with Edward Waters President A. Zachary Faison Jr. and offered extra security resources, similar to what Jewish Day Schools received after they received threats.

“Perpetrating violence of this kind is unacceptable, and targeting people because of their race has no place in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “We’re not going to allow in the state of Florida, our HBCUs to be targets for hateful lunatics like the guy yesterday.”

President Joe Biden on Sunday said in a statement that authorities have opened a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting and are treating it as a possible hate crime.

“We must say clearly and forcefully that white supremacy has no place in America,” he said. “We must refuse to live in a country where Black families going to the store or Black students going to school live in fear of being gunned down because of the color of their skin.”

Florida has been the scene of several of the nation’s worst mass shooting, including the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people and the 2018 tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 people dead, including 14 students ranging in age from 14 to 18.

DeSantis also said he would soon provide more details on plans made by his office in response to the Jacksonville shooting. He spoke to reporters at the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, where preparations for Tropical Storm Idalia were already well underway.

Idalia is expected to make landfall along a sparsely populated stretch of the Gulf Coast near the Panhandle known as the Big Bend. DeSantis said power outages will be a particular concern because it’s hitting an area of the state with plenty of tall, heavy-limbed trees. He also raised concerns about Tallahassee, which suffered massive power outages in the first two weeks after Hurricane Hermine, which made landfall near St. Marks, in the fall of 2016.

DeSantis on Saturday declared a state of emergency for 33 counties, mostly along the Gulf Coast.

“If this storm ends up coming in the Tallahassee region, there's a lot of trees that are going to get knocked down, the power lines are going to get knocked down,” DeSantis said. “That is just going to happen.”

DeSantis also called in 1,100 members of the Florida National Guard to bring in search and rescue equipment suitable for the network of swamps that line the coastline where Idalia is expected to hit.

The impending storm will come less than a year after Hurricane Ian devastated parts of Florida, killing almost 150 people and causing billions of dollars in damage.

The state Division of Emergency Management will also stage an army of power utility crews in Marion County that will be called in to help. DeSantis also urged local utility services to accept help from the outsourced crews brought in by the state.

“Please be willing to accept this mutual aid so we can get the power back on as quickly as possible,” DeSantis said. “When we did hurricane Ian, the places that accepted the mutual aid early, they got the power back on a lot quicker.”

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Kari Lake still ‘contemplating’ Senate bid in Arizona

Arizona Republican Kari Lake is still “contemplating” a run for the Senate in 2024, the former gubernatorial candidate said Sunday.

“There is speculation that you are going to run for the Senate. Are you going to be announcing that soon?” Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked Lake during an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.”

“I'm contemplating it,” Lake replied. “I mean, I could go off and go back into media and make a fortune, but this is not the season for that,” the former TV news anchor said.

Lake, an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, met with several members of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm in May to talk about possibly running for the seat now held by Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat-turned-independent. Sinema is running for reelection in 2024, and already faces competition on the left from Rep. Ruben Gallego, who announced his bid in January.

“We have an opportunity to pick up a seat, prevent it from falling into the hands of somebody who is a socialist or worse,” Lake said Sunday. “So, I’m contemplating it, and I will make a decision here in the next couple of months.”

During her bid in 2022 to succeed former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, Lake attempted to galvanize Trump supporters in Arizona, frequently claiming Trump had been robbed of victory. Lake then refused to accept her own defeat to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

Lake turned to legal means to attempt to overturn Hobbs’ victory. In May, a judge in Arizona dismissed the last of her claims challenging her loss, saying Lake failed to prove her claim that Maricopa County did not verify signatures on mail ballots as required by law.

Lake made it clear Sunday that she is still is a hardcore Trump supporter.

"I think, eventually, the Republicans will unite around President Trump," she told Bartiromo. "He's dominating. Obviously, if you look at the poll numbers, nobody can even touch him."

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Trump raised $7.1 million after Georgia booking, mugshot

Donald Trump has turned his Georgia mugshot into a record-breaking fundraising haul.

The former president has raised $7.1 million since he was booked at an Atlanta jail Thursday evening, according to figures provided first to POLITICO by his campaign. On Friday alone, Trump raised $4.18 million, making it the single-highest 24-hour period of his campaign to date, according to a person familiar with the totals.

The campaign’s fundraising has been powered by merchandise it has been selling through his online store. After Trump was taken into custody, the campaign began selling shirts, posters, bumper stickers and beverage coolers bearing Trump’s scowling mugshot. The items bear the tagline “NEVER SURRENDER!” and range in price from $12 to $34.

The campaign has also been prodding online donors with emails and text messages. And on Thursday night, while flying back from Atlanta to Bedminster, N.J. Trump sent out his first tweet in more than two years directing supporters to his website. The site’s landing page includes the mugshot and asks supporters to “make a contribution to evict Crooked Joe Biden from the White House and SAVE AMERICA during this dark chapter in our nation’s history.”

The fundraising blitz illustrates how Trump has parlayed his four indictments into campaign cash, rallying his hardcore supporters.

Trump’s campaign says it has raised nearly $20 million in the last three weeks, during which time Trump was indicted on charges related to his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and for trying to overturn the Georgia vote count in the 2020 election. That figure is more than half of what Trump raised during his first seven months in the 2024 race.

Trump advisers have moved to thwart unendorsed political candidates and organizations from raising money off the mugshot. But there is little ability to stop private, non-political organizations from monetizing the mugshot. Barstool Sports, a prominent sports and pop culture website, for instance, has been selling its own Trump mugshot t-shirts for $32.

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Multiple people killed in Jacksonville store shooting, mayor says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Multiple people were fatally shot Saturday inside a Jacksonville, Fla., Dollar General store, the city’s mayor has told a television station.

Mayor Donna Deegan told WJXT “there are a number of fatalities” inside the store but didn’t give a precise number. Numerous police officers are in the area near Edward Waters University, a small historically Black university.

“This is unacceptable,” Deegan told the station. “One shooting is too much but these mass shootings are really hard to take.”

Edward Waters University students are being kept in their dorms, the school said in a statement. No students or faculty are believed involved, the school said.

Further details were not immediately available. The city says it and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office will hold a press conference shortly.

The shooting happened five years to the day when a gunman opened fire during a video game tournament in Jacksonville, killing two people before fatally shooting himself.

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Sharpton, Black leaders contrast civil rights fight with efforts to overturn elections

Civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton on Saturday afternoon warned against turning back the clock on civil rights amid recent efforts to overturn democratically held elections during an event celebrating the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

“Sixty years ago, Martin Luther King talked about a dream. Sixty years later, we're dreamers,” Sharpton told a crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial. “The dreamers are in Washington, D.C. The schemers are being booked in Atlanta, Georgia, in the Fulton County Jail. The dreamers will win.”

Sharpton was the capstone speech of the day that featured dozens of civil rights figures, who collectively leaned into rallying support for liberal social causes that they said were in danger, including reproductive rights, environmental action, LGBTQ equality and unions.

“If you look like me, you could have fewer voting rights on your 18th birthday than America promised you on the day you were born,” said Yolanda Renee King, King’s granddaughter. “If you're a young woman like me, you could have fewer personal rights. And no matter who you are, you can be less safe from random gun violence and irreversible climate change.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with civil rights organizers and members of King’s family on Monday, which falls exactly 60 years after the original March on Washington. On Saturday, the president was flying back to Washington after vacationing in Lake Tahoe.

Several Democratic politicians also showed up to support the event and give speeches, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and several members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“Sixty years later, America is at a crossroads — an existential struggle between enlightened people and extreme people,” Jeffries said at the event. “We want to move the country forward. They want to turn back the clock.”

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Zelenskyy pays tribute as Ukrainian pilot ‘Juice,’ 2 others killed in air ‘catastrophe’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday paid tribute to three Ukrainian pilots killed in a mid-air collision, including one with the callsign “Juice” who gained prominence for giving anonymous media interviews during Russia's war in the country.

“Yesterday, a catastrophe in the sky over the Zhytomyr region killed three pilots, including Andriy Pilschikov, callsign ‘Juice,’” Zelenskyy wrote on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. “My heart goes out to the pilots' friends and loved ones. The investigation is ongoing, and the truth will be revealed.”

Pilschikov was killed during a combat mission when two L-39 planes collided, the Ukrainian Air Force said on X. He was not piloting the planes, but was there in an observing capacity, according to a U.S. official.

Pilschikov was a high-profile proponent of increased American assistance to Ukraine to help modernize the country’s air forces, which he had depicted as a weakness against the Russians.

“They have almost full air superiority, because we have limited number of air defenses, limited number of aircraft,” Pilschikov told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last year. “All our systems are pretty old.”

The U.S. is preparing to train Ukrainian pilots in Arizona to fly and maintain F-16 warplanes, which Ukrainian leaders have asked for to improve its air efforts against the Russians. President Joe Biden committed to assisting Ukraine with the jets in May, on the condition they are used to defend the country’s own territory.

Pilschikov was set to be among one of the first classes of pilots to start F-16 training.

"Ukraine will never forget anyone who defended Ukraine's free sky," Zelenskyy further said of the pilots in a video posted on X.

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