After losing its bid for Warner Bros Discovery’s rich trove of characters and stories, Netflix is forging ahead with the challenging work of building culture-defining franchises on its own.
Chief Creative Officer Bela Bajaria said Netflix would keep investing in original ideas, and partner with established studios like MGM and Warner Bros, to try and produce movies and series that live on for years, in the vein of “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday” and “Bridgerton.”
“To me, that&#8217;s just continually the goal,” Bajaria said in an interview.
Yet the failed attempt to buy Warner Bros&#8217; storied movie studio and HBO highlighted a vulnerability for the relative Hollywood upstart, whose catalog of original films and series spans around a dozen years, compared with more than a century&#8217;s worth of stories and characters for Warner Bros, Walt Disney and Universal Pictures. Netflix was willing to make its biggest bet ever with $72 billion to shore up its library and augment its intellectual property with Harry Potter and “Game of Thrones,” because creating franchises has proven challenging.
Interviews with 16 current and former Netflix executives, industry leaders and agents illustrate a picture of the streaming giant whose strategy of making something for everyone, and serving many audiences all at once, is different from crafting a Taylor Sheridan-like universe of “Yellowstone” spin-offs that brings a built-in audience.
Even so, Netflix&#8217;s own prolific showrunner, Shonda Rhimes, has successfully adapted Julia Quinn&#8217;s &#8220;Bridgerton&#8221; novels into a series that&#8217;s entering its fifth season, a spinoff and a touring event set in the Regency-era London, dubbed &#8220;The Queen&#8217;s Ball.&#8221;
Franchises can be valuable for entertainment companies, because they are lower-risk investments that can bring in ancillary revenue through merchandise sales and in-person experiences. Recognizable characters and stories also stand out in a fragmented media landscape, grabbing a viewer&#8217;s attention in a time of myriad distractions.
Netflix announced its first major acquisition, the comic book publisher Millarworld, a day before Disney told investors in August 2017 that it would pull its movies from the streaming service to create a rival, later dubbed Disney+.
“Stranger Things” has been an unqualified success, producing a spin-off series, a stage play, and merchandise. Netflix points to other examples, such as the action-adventure film &#8220;Extraction,&#8221; starring Chris Hemsworth, that led to a sequel and a third installment in production, as well as a series starring acclaimed French actor Omar Sy. Its long-running dating show &#8220;Love Is Blind&#8221; has been remade for multiple global audiences, including versions centered in Brazil, France and Japan.
There have been pricey flops along the way to building its own franchises, like the reported $700 million deal to acquire rights to Roald Dahl’s catalog, which includes such beloved children’s stories as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” The investment has yet to produce a major hit in five years &#8212; though Netflix will try again this year. It plans a Willy Wonka-inspired reality show called “Golden Ticket&#8221; in which competitors try to survive games and temptations on a set with a chocolate river.
Producing consistent hits that spawn new series helps to attract and retain subscribers and increase engagement, which grew by only 2% in the second half of 2025, according to media consultant Owl &amp; Co. Top-line growth has been slowing, with revenue expected to grow 13% this year, according to data from LSEG, compared to 16% in 2025, and its advertising sales represent only 3% of the total. YouTube’s ascendancy poses a competitive threat. YouTube and Disney, with its vault of iconic characters, have consistently beaten Netflix in share of television viewing since October 2024, according to Nielsen&#8217;s media distributor gauge, which measures broadcast and cable television viewing and streaming.
Complicating matters, Paramount Skydance is acquiring Warner Bros, which could reduce the number of suppliers of original shows.
Armed with a $2.8 billion windfall from the failed Warner Bros deal, Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters will continue to go it alone. Its coming releases include time-tested characters and stories, including a live-action “Scooby-Doo” series and a “Narnia” movie based on the C.S. Lewis books and directed by Greta Gerwig.
“The Electric State” offers one example of an expensive failure that illustrates the inherent risks in attempting to launch a sprawling Marvel-like cinematic universe.
Netflix snagged Joe and Anthony Russo, the brothers behind the smashing success of Walt Disney’s Avengers movies and Netflix&#8217;s own &#8220;Extraction,&#8221; to adapt the critically acclaimed science-fiction novel, and cast “Stranger Things” star Millie Bobby Brown alongside Hollywood A-lister Chris Pratt as stars.
Critics savaged the $320 million film when it was released last year. Plans to more fully exploit the film &#8212; including a possible spin-off series and sequels &#8212; never materialized, according to two sources directly involved with the project who requested anonymity to protect their industry relationships.
“A lot of people have big movies that also are IP that don&#8217;t work,” said Netflix&#8217;s Bajaria. &#8220;We&#8217;re in the film and TV business, so a lot of things work, a lot of things don&#8217;t work.&#8221;
Other gambles &#8212; such as Netflix&#8217;s decision to greenlight &#8220;Squid Game,&#8221; a dystopian thriller from creator Hwang Dong-hyuk that others had passed on &#8212; paid off handsomely, creating a global juggernaut.
With the sheer volume of content, Netflix also has its share of surprises, like Sony Pictures Animation&#8217;s Oscar-winning animated film ”KPop Demon Hunters,” which last year became the most watched movie ever on the service.
When lightning strikes, it can rely on its unparalleled global distribution and sophisticated algorithm to stoke enthusiasm for a movie or series that viewers have begun to binge, helping to create cultural phenomena.
Netflix is treating &#8220;KPop Demon Hunters&#8221; as its next major franchise, with licensed toys and other merchandise from Mattel and Hasbro, themed “adult” meals from McDonald’s, a possible concert tour and a planned animated sequel.
But the success caught Netflix off guard, according to two sources. In fact, the company didn’t have licensed toys available to capitalize on the phenomenon during the holiday shopping season. Netflix has said in interviews that it approached toymakers and retailers a year or more ahead of the film&#8217;s release, but they were unwilling to take a risk on an untested property.
At a March 18 presentation in Los Angeles, Netflix showcased its 2026 lineup, which includes a fourth installment of “Bridgerton,”  a second season of “One Piece,” an adaptation of the long-running manga series, a live-action TV series based on the “Assassin’s Creed” video game franchise, and a reboot of “Little House on the Prairie.”
“We&#8217;re off to a strong start and feeling confident about the quality and consistency of our slate this year,” said Jinny Howe, vice president of original series at Netflix.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Jen Saba and Anna Driver)

Squid Game

Netflix Searches For Franchises After Losing Out On ‘Harry Potter’

Movies

Netflix

U.S.

Warner Bros

NEW YORK (Reuters) &#8211; Bank of America agreed to pay $72.5 million to settle a civil lawsuit brought by women who accused the bank of facilitating their sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, court records showed on Friday.
Lawyers for the bank and the women had told Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff this month they had reached a &#8220;settlement in principle,&#8221; but terms of the deal were not disclosed at the time.
&#8220;While we stand by our prior statements made in the filings in this case, including that Bank of America did not facilitate sex trafficking crimes, this resolution allows us to put this matter behind us and provides further closure for the plaintiffs,&#8221; a spokesperson for Bank of America said in a statement.
In a joint court filing, David Boies and Bradley Edwards, attorneys for the plaintiffs, said the settlement represented the best option for their clients &#8220;given that many Class Members suffered harm many years ago and are in need of financial relief now.&#8221;
The plaintiffs&#8217; lawyers may seek up to 30% of the settlement, or about $21.8 million, for legal fees, according to court records.
The settlement requires Rakoff&#8217;s approval. The judge scheduled a court hearing for Thursday to consider approving the deal.
The proposed class action, filed in October by a woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe, accused the second-largest U.S. bank of ignoring suspicious financial transactions related to Epstein despite a &#8220;plethora&#8221; of information about his crimes because it valued profit over protecting victims.
Bank of America has said Doe alleged merely that it provided routine services to people who at the time had no known links to Epstein, and that any suggestion that it was more deeply involved was &#8220;threadbare and meritless.&#8221;
Rakoff ruled in January that Bank of America must face Doe&#8217;s claims that it knowingly benefited from Epstein&#8217;s sex trafficking and obstructed enforcement of the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act. Among the transactions Doe flagged were payments to Epstein by Apollo Global Management&#8217;s billionaire co-founder, Leon Black.
Black stepped down as Apollo&#8217;s chief executive in 2021 after a review by an outside law firm found he had paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning.
Black has denied wrongdoing and said he was unaware of Epstein&#8217;s criminal conduct.
Doe&#8217;s lawyers have also sued other alleged enablers of Epstein&#8217;s sex trafficking, and in 2023 reached settlements of $290 million with JPMorgan Chase and $75 million with Deutsche Bank on behalf of his accusers.
The lawyers are also appealing Rakoff&#8217;s dismissal in January of a similar lawsuit they brought against Bank of New York Mellon.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by New York City&#8217;s medical examiner.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Rod Nickel)

Bank of America/Epstein

Another Major Bank Agrees To Dish Out Over $70M To Settle Epstein Lawsuit

Bank of America

Banks

Jeffrey Epstein

Absences among transportation security workers this weekend reached their highest since a partial government shutdown began five weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security said on Sunday, as immigration enforcement agents prepared to fill in for them at some of the busiest U.S. airports.
Nationwide, about 11.5% of Transportation Security Administration staff were absent on Saturday, DHS said, but that figure soared to 42.4% at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, 33.4% at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and 33.6% at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Overall, more than 9% of TSA employees have been absent from work over the past seven days, leading to lengthy lines for passengers trying to get to their gates, according to DHS.
To help fill the staffing gaps, hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will deploy to airports starting on Monday, officials have said.
DHS said on Sunday it would not publicly share details about the ICE deployment, in order to preserve operational security. Sources briefed on the matter said the current plan calls for deploying ICE agents to 14 locations, although that figure may change.
Tens of thousands of airport security personnel have been working without pay for weeks while congressional Democrats and Republicans argue over a budget for DHS.
&#8220;Many TSA officers cannot pay their rent, buy food, or afford to put gas in their cars — forcing them to call out sick from work,&#8221; a DHS spokesperson said on Sunday.
Trump announced on Saturday that ICE agents would be sent to airports unless Democratic lawmakers agree to fund DHS. Democrats have criticized the department&#8217;s immigration operations and are demanding a change in rules.
For now, ICE agents will not be deployed in areas behind security checkpoints because they lack the specific clearance needed, the sources said.
Border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday that sending out immigration agents to bolster short-staffed TSA teams will speed up airport lines, but the union for TSA workers said that does not solve what they see as the underlying problem of pay.
In appearances on Sunday news shows, Homan and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy argued that ICE personnel can help with airport security screening, starting on Monday, even though they have not been specifically trained for it.
&#8220;When we deploy tomorrow, we&#8217;ll have a well thought-out plan to execute,&#8221; Homan said on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; program.
Hundreds of TSA agents have simply resigned, according to their labor union and TSA.
&#8220;ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!&#8221; Trump wrote in a Sunday morning social media post.
Details of how ICE agents would help with the lines were scant, although Homan told CNN a plan would be in place by the end of the day &#8220;to move those lines along.&#8221;
Homan and Duffy, in separate interviews, had different ideas about how the ICE agents might be deployed. Homan said he doubted ICE agents would operate X-ray baggage and passenger screening machines because they did not have experience. Duffy, in contrast, said ICE agents &#8220;know how to pat people down, they know how to run the X-ray machines.&#8221;
The labor union representing TSA workers criticized Trump&#8217;s decision, saying their members spend months in training learning to detect explosives and weapons.
&#8220;Our members at TSA have been showing up every day, without a paycheck, because they believe in the mission of keeping the flying public safe,&#8221; Everett Kelley, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. &#8220;They deserve to be paid, not replaced by untrained, armed agents who have shown how dangerous they can be.&#8221;
Unlike TSA employees, ICE agents have continued to get paid by the government through a separate funding provision while lawmakers debate whether ICE funding should be tied to new rules and procedures.
Democrats have said new rules are needed after masked ICE agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in the streets of Minneapolis earlier this year. The two had come out to protest or observe Trump&#8217;s deportation surge in Minnesota.
Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat and the minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, told CNN that his caucus is open to a separate funding agreement for TSA employees while lawmakers debate measures to &#8220;get ICE under control.&#8221; But there has been little movement on an actual deal so far, especially in the Senate.
&#8220;We have an obligation to not fund an agency that is acting this lawlessly,&#8221; Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, told NBC&#8217;s &#8220;Meet the Press&#8221; program.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York, David Shepardson in Washington and Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; Additional writing by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle, Aurora Ellis, Sergio Non and Edmund Klamann)

Why ICE Agents In Airports May Be Arriving Just In Time

Air Travel

Atlanta

General

Houston

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Iran said on Sunday it would strike the energy and water systems of its Gulf neighbours in retaliation if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through with a threat to hit Iran&#8217;s electricity grid in 48 hours, escalating the three-week-old war.
The prospect of tit-for-tat strikes on civilian infrastructure could deepen the regional crisis and further rattle global markets when they reopen on Monday morning.
Air raid sirens sounded across Israel from the early hours of Sunday, warning of incoming missiles from Iran, after scores of people were hurt overnight in two separate attacks in the southern Israeli towns of Arad and Dimona.
The Israeli military said hours later that it was striking Tehran in response.
Trump threatened overnight to &#8220;obliterate&#8221; Iran&#8217;s power plants if Tehran did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, barely a day after he talked about &#8220;winding down&#8221; the war. He made the new threat as U.S. Marines and heavy landing craft are heading to the region.
But while attacks on electricity could hurt Iran, they would be potentially catastrophic for its Gulf neighbors, which consume around five times as much power per capita. Electricity makes their gleaming desert cities habitable, and most of them produce nearly all of their drinking water by purifying it from the sea.
Iran&#8217;s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf wrote on X that critical infrastructure and energy facilities in the Middle East could be &#8220;irreversibly destroyed&#8221; should Iranian power plants be attacked.
Iran&#8217;s Revolutionary Guards said it would also mean the shipping lane where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally transits along Iran&#8217;s southern coast would remain shut.
&#8220;The Strait of Hormuz will be completely closed and will not be opened until our destroyed power plants are rebuilt,&#8221; the Guards said in a statement.
More than 2,000 people have been killed during the war the U.S. and Israel launched on February 28, which has upended markets, spiked fuel costs, fuelled global inflation fears and convulsed the postwar Western alliance.
&#8220;President Trump&#8217;s threat has now placed a 48-hour ticking time bomb of elevated uncertainty over markets,&#8221; said IG market analyst Tony Sycamore, who expects stock markets to fall when they reopen on Monday.
Oil prices jumped on Friday, ending the day at their highest in nearly four years.
Markets already under severe strain from blockaded shipping were further rattled last week when Israel attacked a major gas field in Iran, and Tehran responded with strikes on neighbors Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, raising the prospect of damage hindering energy output even if tankers resume sailing.
Iranian attacks have effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, causing the worst oil crisis since the 1970s. Its near-closure sent European gas prices surging as much as 35% last week.
&#8220;If Iran doesn&#8217;t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!&#8221; Trump posted on social media around 7:45 p.m. EDT (2345 GMT) on Saturday.
Iranian media quoted the country&#8217;s representative to the International Maritime Organisation as saying the strait remains open to all shipping except vessels linked to &#8220;Iran&#8217;s enemies.&#8221;
Ali Mousavi said passage through the waterway was possible by coordinating security and safety arrangements with Tehran.
Ship-tracking data shows some vessels, such as Indian-flagged ships and a Pakistani oil tanker, have negotiated safe passage through the strait. But the vast majority of ships have remained holed up inside.
Iran&#8217;s Khatam al-Anbiya military command headquarters said on Sunday if the U.S. hit Iran&#8217;s fuel and energy infrastructure, Iran would attack all U.S. energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure in the region.
Striking major Iranian power plants could trigger blackouts, crippling everything from pumps and refineries to export terminals and military command centers.
The United States and Israel say they have seriously degraded Iran&#8217;s ability to project force beyond its borders with their three weeks of intensive air strikes.
But Tehran fired its first known long-range ballistic missiles with a range of 4,000 km (2,500 miles) on Friday towards a U.S.-British Indian Ocean ‌military base, expanding the risk of attacks beyond the Middle East.
An Iranian strike also landed near Israel&#8217;s secretive nuclear reactor about 13 km (8 miles) southeast of the city of Dimona.
The war has been taking place alongside a confrontation on a separate front between Israel and Lebanon&#8217;s Hezbollah, backed by Iran, with Israel saying on Sunday its troops had raided a number of the armed group&#8217;s sites in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it had attacked several border areas in northern Israel. Israeli emergency services said one person was killed in a kibbutz near the border. Israel later said it was checking whether the death was caused by Israeli fire.
Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel since it entered the regional war on March 2, prompting an Israeli offensive that has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon.
Israel said it had instructed the military to accelerate the demolition of Lebanese homes in &#8220;frontline villages&#8221; to end threats to Israelis, and to destroy all bridges over Lebanon&#8217;s Litani River which it said were used for &#8220;terrorist activity.&#8221;
Pope Leo appealed for an end to the conflict. &#8220;The death and suffering caused by this war are a scandal to the whole human family,&#8221; he said.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in Washington, Andrew Mills in Doha, Timour Azhari in Riyadh, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and Alexander Cornwell in Tel Aviv; Additional reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Lisa Shumaker, Michael Perry, William Maclean; Editing by Alexander Smith, Peter Graff and Jon Boyle)

Missile

Iran Issues New Threat As Trump’s 48-Hour Ultimatum Hits Halfway Mark

Donald Trump

Global Politics

Iran

Israel

World

Cuba said it had begun efforts early on Sunday to restore power after its grid collapsed for the second time in a week amid a U.S. oil blockade that has dealt a major blow to the island&#8217;s already ailing energy infrastructure.
The grid collapsed Saturday evening at 6:32 p.m. (2232 GMT) after a major power plant in Nuevitas, in eastern Cuba&#8217;s Camaguey province, failed and went offline, grid operator UNE said, causing a cascade effect that knocked out power to the nation&#8217;s approximately 10 million people.
Cuba&#8217;s energy and mines ministry said early on Sunday it had established microsystems &#8211; smaller, closed circuits &#8211; in all of the island&#8217;s provinces to restore power for vital services like hospitals, water supply and food distribution.
The country&#8217;s two gas-fired power plants, operated by Energas, were running in Varadero and Boca de Jaruco, and electricity had reached the nearby Santa Cruz oil-fired plant, the energy ministry said on social media.
Shortly after sunrise on Sunday, the streets of the capital Havana were crowded with early risers sitting on doorsteps, lamenting the situation with neighbors and swatting mosquitoes in cool weather under clear skies.
&#8220;Life doesn&#8217;t change. We&#8217;re stuck in the same rut,&#8221; said Havana resident Leoni Alberto, who said he was forced to cook with firewood at least twice a week due to the outages. &#8220;It&#8217;s absolute madness. There&#8217;s no other way around it.&#8221;
Cellular service and internet was almost entirely unavailable in most areas, leaving many without communication of any kind.
Cuban prime minister Manuel Marrero said the recovery effort was taking place under &#8220;very complex circumstances.&#8221;
Cuba&#8217;s electrical grid has been teetering on the edge of collapse and unreliable for months, leaving the island&#8217;s residents in the dark for hours a day, and sometimes longer, even in better times.
But Saturday&#8217;s blackout incident marks the third major power outage this month, as a majority of the system went down on March 4 when a key thermoelectric generating plant failed. The power grid also went completely offline on Monday for unexplained reasons.
Cuba has experienced a series of total outages in recent years, but two nationwide blackouts in the space of a week is exceptional.
U.S. President Donald Trump began taking measures to block oil from reaching the Caribbean island after Washington deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on January 3. Venezuela had previously provided oil to its close ally on favorable terms.
Since then, Trump has cut off Venezuelan exports to Cuba and threatened other countries with punitive tariffs if they sell oil to the island.
Cuba has long blamed the U.S. trade embargo for economic failures including its obsolete power grid, while Washington has attributed the shortfalls to Cuba&#8217;s Soviet-style command economy.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood in Havana; additional reporting by Anett Rios and Alien Fernandez, Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Cuba

Cuba Begins Recovery Efforts After Second Grid Collapse In A Week

Energy

Venezuela

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration&#8217;s restrictive Pentagon press access policy, which threatens journalists with being ​branded security risks if they seek information not authorized for public release.
The lawsuit by the New York Times in Washington, D.C., federal court alleged that policy changes by the Defense Department last year gave it free rein to freeze out reporters and news outlets over coverage the department did not like, in violation of the Constitution&#8217;s protections for free speech and due process. The government disputed that characterization and said the policy is reasonable and necessary for national security.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said in his ruling that he recognized the importance of protecting troops and war plans but that it was &#8220;more important than ever that the public have access to information from a variety of perspectives about what its government is doing&#8221; in light of President Donald Trump&#8217;s recent &#8220;incursion&#8221; into Venezuela and war with Iran.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media that the government disagrees with the decision and will seek an immediate appeal.
New York Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said the ruling enforces constitutionally protected rights for the free press and &#8220;reaffirms the right of The Times and other independent media to continue to ask questions on the public&#8217;s behalf.&#8221;
&#8220;Americans deserve visibility into how their government is being run, and the actions the military is taking in their name and with their tax dollars,&#8221; Stadtlander said in a statement on Friday.
The changes approved under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in October 2025 state that journalists can be deemed security risks and have their press badges revoked if they solicit unauthorized military personnel to disclose classified, and in some cases unclassified, information.
Of the 56 news outlets in the Pentagon Press Association, only one agreed to sign an acknowledgment of the new policy, according to the Times&#8217; lawsuit. Reporters who did not sign surrendered their press passes.
The Pentagon assembled a new press corps consisting of pro-Trump outlets and media personalities after the exodus of reporters, which the Times said was evidence that the policy was aimed at stifling unflattering coverage.
The policy states that publishing sensitive information &#8220;is generally protected by the First Amendment&#8221; but says soliciting that information could be considered by officials when determining whether a reporter poses a &#8220;security or safety risk.&#8221;
In its lawsuit, the Times said the policy unlawfully restricts essential newsgathering techniques and gives the Pentagon &#8220;unfettered&#8221; discretion to revoke passes, permitting it to impose the type of &#8220;viewpoint-based&#8221; press restrictions forbidden by the Constitution.
Justice Department lawyers acknowledged the policy was partly subjective but said press credentialing decisions were still governed by neutral, objective criteria. The government also said soliciting military personnel to commit a crime by disclosing unauthorized information was not legally protected speech.
In his ruling on Friday, Friedman said the policy violated the First and Fifth Amendments because it was vague, overly expansive and &#8220;makes any newsgathering and reporting not blessed by the Department&#8221; a possible basis for revocation of a journalist&#8217;s pass.
He also rejected the government&#8217;s argument that the policy is aimed at preventing criminal solicitation of defense secrets by journalists, saying it was impossible for reporters to know whether information they seek is authorized for release.
Freedom of the Press Foundation advocacy chief Seth Stern praised Friday&#8217;s ruling in a statement, saying it was &#8220;shocking&#8221; that the government had argued that &#8220;journalists asking questions of the government is criminal.&#8221;
The Associated Press has a pending lawsuit against Trump administration officials over its removal from the White House press corps after the news agency decided to continue using the Gulf of Mexico&#8217;s established ​name, while acknowledging Trump&#8217;s executive order calling on U.S. institutions to refer to it as the Gulf of America.
The AP said the decision was illegal viewpoint-based discrimination, while the government countered that it had wide discretion over press access decisions for non-public spaces.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Kate Mayberry and Rosalba O&#8217;Brien)

The Pentagon

Pentagon Pushes Back After Judge Rules Press Access Limits Unconstitutional

Courts

Free Speech

Media

Pentagon

Pete Hegseth

Politics

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Friday suspended the state&#8217;s gas tax amid rising fuel prices as the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran enters its third week.
The move &#8211; the first such relief offered by a U.S. state since the war started on February 28 &#8211; suspends Georgia&#8217;s tax of 33.3 cents per gallon on gas and 37.3 cents per gallon on diesel for 60 days.
The conflict has choked supplies from the Middle East &#8211; one of the world&#8217;s top oil-producing regions &#8211; so severely that U.S. President Donald Trump is considering military options to ensure safe passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping route near Iran.
The U.S. national average gas price on Friday was $3.912 a gallon, the highest since October 2022 and up 31% since the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began.
Fifty-five percent of respondents in a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll said their household finances had taken at least &#8220;somewhat&#8221; of a hit from the increases in gas prices. Among those seeing an impact, 21% said their finances were affected &#8220;a great deal.&#8221;
Trump told Reuters earlier this month he was not concerned about the rising prices at the pump, saying he expected prices to decrease &#8220;very rapidly&#8221; once the war ended.
Fox News, citing the White House, reported on Friday that the Trump administration was working on options to alleviate the burdens felt by Americans at the pump.
(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington; editing by Michelle Nichols)

Gas Prices Dip Lower Ahead Of July 4th Holiday Weekend

Red State Pauses Gas Tax To Ease Pain Of Iran War Price Increase

Economy

Gas Prices

Georgia

A federal appeals court on Monday largely upheld a ruling that blocked a &#8220;sweeping and unprecedented&#8221; freeze on trillions of dollars in government financial assistance that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration instituted early last year.
A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Democratic attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia in finding that the White House&#8217;s budget office had directed federal agencies to implement a categorical freeze on funding that was likely improper.
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge David Barron said the Office of Management and Budget &#8220;directed the agency defendants to freeze such funds without considering an obvious aspect of the problem &#8212; namely, the reliance interests of the recipients of the obligated federal funds that were to be frozen.&#8221;
The judge, who like the other panel members was appointed by a Democratic president, pointed to a lower-court judge&#8217;s conclusion that the agencies failed in carrying out OMB&#8217;s directive to assess whether such payments were legally required or appropriate on a case-by-case basis.
While the appeals court largely upheld Rhode Island-based U.S. District Judge John McConnell&#8217;s March 2025 injunction blocking the policy, it overturned part of it to the extent it required agencies to make payments to the states that sued.
It did so citing a ruling last year by the U.S. Supreme Court in a different Trump-era case that indicated lawsuits seeking to recover money owed by the government under contracts and grants must be pursued in a different, specialist court.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The state attorneys general sued after the OMB in January 2025, shortly after Trump returned to the White House, issued a memo directing federal agencies to temporarily pause spending on federal financial assistance programs.
That memo said the freeze was necessary while the administration reviewed grants and loans to ensure they are aligned with Trump&#8217;s executive orders, including ones ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs and directing a pause on spending on projects seeking to combat climate change.
The freeze implicated up to $3 trillion in federal funding.
OMB later withdrew that memo after it became the subject of two lawsuits, including the one before McConnell. But the states argued the memo&#8217;s withdrawal did not mean the end of the policy itself.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

Trump Admin Cannot Implement ‘Sweeping’ Funding Freeze, Court Rules

Executive Orders

Money

Trump Administration

North Korea fired more than 10 ballistic missiles into the sea on Saturday, South Korea&#8217;s military said, as the U.S. and South Korean forces conducted military drills and U.S. President Donald Trump renewed overtures towards Pyongyang for dialogue.
The missiles were launched from an area near the capital Pyongyang, around 1:20 p.m. (0430 GMT) towards the sea off the country&#8217;s east coast, South Korea&#8217;s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
Japan&#8217;s coast guard said it had detected what could be a ballistic missile that fell into the sea. It appeared to have fallen outside Japan&#8217;s exclusive economic zone, public broadcaster NHK said, citing the military.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement on Saturday that it is aware of the missile launches and is consulting with allies and partners.
&#8220;Based on current assessments, this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies,&#8221; the USINDOPACOM posted on social media platform X.
North Korea has test-launched a wide range of ballistic and cruise missiles for more than two decades in a push to develop the means to deliver nuclear weapons, which it is believed to have successfully built.
As a result, Pyongyang has been under multiple U.N. Security Council sanctions since 2006 but it remains defiant, despite severe obstacles they created to its trade, economy and defense.
South Korea and Washington this week launched the annual major drills in South Korea, which they say are purely defensive, aimed at testing readiness against military threats from North Korea.
Hundreds of U.S. and South Korean troops conducted river-crossing drills on Saturday with hardware including tanks and armored combat vehicles, overseen by the commander of their combined forces. The U.S. military has about 28,500 troops and squadrons of fighter jets stationed in South Korea.
North Korea frequently displays its anger at such exercises, saying they are &#8220;dress rehearsals&#8221; for armed aggression against it by the allies.
On Thursday, South Korea&#8217;s Prime Minister Kim Min-seok met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington to discuss ways to reopen dialogue with the North. Trump is eager for any opportunity to sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea&#8217;s Kim told reporters.
(Reporting by Jack Kim, Sebin Choi, Heejin Kim in Seoul, Daewoung Kim in Yeoncheon, South Korea, Anton Bridge in Tokyo; Editing by William Mallard, Sergio Non and Chizu Nomiyama )

Kim Jong Un

North Korea Fires 10 Ballistic Missiles During U.S.-South Korea Military Drills

Baliistic Missiles

Military

North Korea

South Korea

Russia hammered Ukraine with missiles and drones on Saturday, killing six people and inflicting damage across several regions of the country, Ukrainian officials said.
Five of the dead were in Kyiv region outside the capital, where President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian forces targeted energy infrastructure, but also damaged residential buildings, schools and businesses. Fifteen people were injured.
Zelensky said the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions were also targeted in an attack that included around 430 drones and 68 missiles, most of which were downed by air defences.
Later in the day, the governor of the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, Ivan Fedorov, said a residential area of the city of Zaporizhzhia had been hit by Russian-guided bombs, killing one person and injuring three.
Reuters Television footage showed emergency crews at work amid piles of rubble and twisted metal. Windows and frames on balconies were smashed.
&#8220;The second attack was strong. The kitchen window flew out, as did those in the living room and bedroom, everything went into a roar. I ran and got slightly injured,&#8221; Olha Kiyashko, 65, told Reuters.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve got no strength left. They took away our pension years — the years we could have lived on, the years we&#8217;d planned and counted on. All our health is gone.&#8221;
Saturday&#8217;s strikes come as the Iran conflict has distracted international attention from a U.S.-backed peace push in the four-year war, which Kyiv says Moscow has no interest in ending.
&#8220;Russia will try to exploit the war in the Middle East to cause even greater destruction here in Europe, in Ukraine,&#8221; Zelensky wrote on X.
He repeated his call for Kyiv&#8217;s partners to boost production of air-defense weapons, stocks of which have been diminishing as the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf have fended off Iranian strikes.
Russia&#8217;s winter attacks on Ukraine have left swathes of major cities without power or heating, part of a campaign to weaken resolve as Moscow&#8217;s troops press a battlefield offensive and demand Kyiv cede more territory in the east.
Ukraine&#8217;s forces have targeted Russian strategic infrastructure such as oil refineries, depots and terminals in long-range strikes.
Ukraine&#8217;s Energy Ministry said on Saturday that consumers in six regions were without electricity after the overnight strikes and Russian shelling of frontline areas.
&#8220;There&#8217;s no way Russia will stop,&#8221; said local resident Natalia Fetko, 57, whose building was damaged in the strike. &#8220;Nothing is enough for them.&#8221;
Damage was recorded in four districts outside the capital, according to regional military administrator Mykola Kalashnyk.
Saturday&#8217;s attack also prompted NATO member Poland to scramble jets to protect its airspace, but no violations were observed, Warsaw&#8217;s military said.
In Moldova, on Ukraine&#8217;s western border, the Foreign Ministry denounced what it said was an intrusion by a Russian drone into its airspace in a border district, saying Moscow&#8217;s actions undermined regional security and posed a danger to its citizens.
(Additional reporting by Yurii Kovalenko, Serhiy Chaliy and Alexander Tanas; Editing by Toby Chopra, Gareth Jones, Rod Nickel, Ron Popeski and Diane Craft)

Ukraine

Russia Launches 400+ Drones, Dozens Of Missiles In Ukraine Strike, Killing 6

Ukraine-Russia War

Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky

Anti-government protesters attacked a Communist Party office in northern Cuba early on Saturday, a state-run newspaper reported, in a rare outburst of public dissent triggered by worsening blackouts that have been exacerbated by a U.S. oil blockade.
A rally against power cuts and food shortages appeared to begin peacefully in the city of Moron late on Friday then turned violent in the early hours of Saturday morning, Invasor newspaper said.
Videos on social media showed a large fire and people throwing rocks through the windows of a building as voices shouted &#8220;liberty&#8221; in the background.
Reuters was unable to confirm the authenticity of videos that posters said showed the unrest in Moron, a city on Cuba&#8217;s northern coast about 250 miles (400 km) east of the capital Havana near the tourist resort of Cayo Coco.
US BLOCKADE TURNS THE SCREW
The ​United States has tightened the screws on Cuba this year since capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro &#8211; Cuba&#8217;s most important foreign benefactor &#8211; in January.
U.S. President Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba and threatened to slap tariffs on any country that sells oil to Cuba, piling pressure on the economy already struggling with shortages of food, fuel, electricity and medicine.
Trump has in recent weeks made a series of statements, saying Cuba was on the verge of collapse or eager to make a deal with the United States. Cuba&#8217;s government said on Friday it had begun talks with Washington to try to defuse the crisis.
Public protests, particularly violent ones, are exceedingly rare in Cuba. Cuba&#8217;s 2019 constitution grants citizens the right to demonstrate, but a law more specifically defining that right is stalled in the legislature, leaving those who take to the street in legal limbo.
&#8220;What initially began peacefully, and after an exchange with local authorities, turned into acts of vandalism against the headquarters of the Municipal Party Committee,&#8221; the Invasor newspaper said.
&#8220;A smaller group of people stoned the entrance of the building and started a fire in the street with furniture from the reception area,&#8221; it added.
Vandals targeted several other state-run establishments in the area, including a pharmacy and a government market, the report said.
In one unverified video on social media, a gunshot is heard, and the camera pans to a person lying on the ground. State media outlet Vanguardia de Cuba dismissed online reports that the person lying on the ground had been shot by police.
&#8220;The image circulating shows the scene of the protest, but it&#8217;s important for the public to know the truth: no one was injured by gunfire,&#8221; Vanguardia de Cuba said on X.
&#8220;Media manipulation seeks to sow fear and confusion among our people. Let&#8217;s not fall for provocations,&#8221; it added.
Police detained five people and one drunken participant fell over and was being treated for injuries in a local hospital.
Over the past week, several small groups of residents across Havana have banged pots in protest against extended blackouts.
Students on Monday staged a sit-in on the steps of the University of Havana after the government suspended in-person classes, blaming the U.S. oil blockade. Fuel shortages have vastly reduced public transportation, making it difficult, if not impossible, for teachers and students to get together for classes.
Moron was also the site of significant protests during anti-government riots on July 11, 2021, the largest since Fidel Castro&#8217;s 1959 revolution.
(Reporting by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Anti-Government Riot Breaks Out In Cuba Over Blackouts

Communism

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed Latin American leaders to Florida on Saturday to launch a new coalition against drug cartels, telling officials their countries had allowed gangs to seize territory and joking that he had no time to learn their languages.
Trump framed the effort as an aggressive campaign to confront drug cartels, citing them as a primary reason for ramping up U.S. involvement in Latin America, including a pressure campaign against Venezuela that culminated in the January capture of President Nicolas Maduro. At one point, Trump suggested the United States could use missiles against cartel leaders if partners requested it.
He also singled out Mexico as the center of cartel activity and predicted major political change in Cuba, saying the country was &#8220;very much at the end of the line&#8221; and repeating previous statements that Cuban officials are negotiating with him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
At least a dozen leaders from Central America, South America and the Caribbean joined the &#8220;Shield of the Americas&#8221; summit, where Trump signed a proclamation launching the coalition.
&#8220;Leaders in this region have allowed large swaths of territory in the Western Hemisphere to come under the direct control of transnational gangs, and they&#8217;ve run areas of your country,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;We&#8217;re not gonna let that happen.&#8221;
In an opening speech that ran more than 30 minutes, Trump also touched on topics far beyond drug cartels, including Iran, Ukraine, Pakistan and India, political endorsements, Dominican sugar, building battleships, and the importance of interpreters.
Trump joked about language differences between himself and the mostly Spanish-speaking group of leaders. &#8220;I&#8217;m not learning your damn language,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t have time.&#8221;
Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants, later delivered brief remarks in English and Spanish, while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth echoed Trump&#8217;s stance.
&#8220;I only speak American,&#8221; Hegseth joked.
Trump has pushed to build a coalition of regional partners around a more forceful approach to combating drug cartels and organized crime. Saturday&#8217;s event also gave him an opportunity to project strength closer to home as the war with Iran escalates and threatens to push up global oil and gas prices.
Earlier in the day, Trump said Iran would be &#8220;hit very hard&#8221; on Saturday and that he was considering widening the areas and groups of people targeted, without providing details.
Among those who attended the summit were Argentine President Javier Milei, Chile&#8217;s President-elect Jose Antonio Kast and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, whose gang crackdown, criticized by human rights groups, has become a model for parts of Latin America&#8217;s right.
Politicians from across the region have toured Bukele&#8217;s sprawling &#8220;mega-prison&#8221;, where the United States last year deported more than 200 Venezuelans without trial.
Also in attendance was Honduran President Nasry Asfura, who narrowly won a disputed election with Trump&#8217;s backing, and Ecuador&#8217;s President Daniel Noboa, who has echoed parts of Trump&#8217;s economic agenda and recently announced joint operations with the U.S. in a military crackdown on drug trafficking.
Many of the leaders share Trump&#8217;s hardline view of crime and migration, favoring crackdowns over deeper social fixes and private business over the state. Their rise reflects a broader rightward turn in parts of Latin America at a time when the region is being pulled between Washington and Beijing.
Trump did not mention China specifically but warned that the United States would not allow &#8220;hostile foreign influence&#8221; to gain a foothold in the Western Hemisphere, including in the Panama Canal, a key global freight route.
The comments, while not explicit, come as Washington increasingly views Latin America through the lens of strategic competition with Beijing.
China’s trade with the region reached about $518 billion in 2024 and Beijing has extended more than $120 billion in loans to governments across the Western Hemisphere, according to Ryan Berg of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
China’s growing footprint — from satellite tracking facilities in Argentina to a Chinese-backed port in Peru and economic support for Venezuela — has long troubled U.S. officials.
In response, the Trump administration has pressed governments across the region to curb Beijing’s role in ports, energy projects and other strategic infrastructure.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Miami, Florida, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Sarah Morland in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Simon Lewis in Washington and Natalia Siniawski in Mexico City, Editing by Sergio Non, Himani Sarkar, Alex Richardson and Alistair Bell)

Trump Launches New America-Led Security Push To Crush Cartels, Counter China

Communist China

Drug Cartels

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