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Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) issued a fierce threat to the British government as it considered imposing boycotts on goods from illegal Israeli settlements, a threat that could end up wiping out around 70,000 American jobs.On Monday, reports revealed that the United Kingdom was preparing to impose new restrictions on goods produced in Israeli settlements. There are more than 700,000 Israeli settlers illegally living in the West Bank, with instances of Israeli settler violence rising in recent months. Also on Monday, Fine issued the United Kingdom a warning.“As the British government considers forcing British companies to boycott portions of Israel, it should be aware that a Florida law that I passed as a member of the Legislature would ban any British company forced to comply from doing business with any state or local government in Florida,” Fine wrote in a statement published on social media.“It would also end any British business participating in that boycott from doing any business in Florida if it needed any official interaction with state or local government to operate (permits, tax collection). Florida is one of Britain’s largest trading partners. They should understand that their vanity project in support of Muslim terror could cost them billions of dollars.”The United Kingdom is a top investor in Florida, and British companies account for around 70,000 jobs in the Sunshine State. In a follow-up post, Fine asked X's chatbot Grok to explain how Florida's anti-boycott law might affect British companies — and critics said its response backfired on him spectacularly.“LOL. You are going to wreck your own state,” wrote Leilani Dowding, a British model and reality television personality, in a social media post on X Tuesday.“Haha, you asked Grok, and it told you how much your plan would f--- over Florida, not the UK,” wrote Jack Duncan, a British LGBTQ+ rights activist, in a social media post on X Tuesday.“About a dozen” American citizens have died from incidents involving Israeli settlers or soldiers, including the death of American activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer in Gaza in 2003. An American was killed by Israeli settlers as recently as July of last year: 20-year-old Sayfollah Musallet, who was “beaten to death” by settlers while on his family’s farm near Ramallah in the West Bank.As the British government considers forcing British companies to boycott portions of Israel, it should be aware that a Florida law that I passed as a member of the Legislature would ban any British company forced to comply from doing business with any state or local government in…— Congressman Randy Fine (@RepFine) September 7, 2026

Israeli opposition leaders demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's removal from office Tuesday over a bombshell report that the United Arab Emirates had warned him of an impending Hamas attack roughly a week and a half before the Oct. 7, 2023, assault.The report, excerpted from a forthcoming book by Haaretz journalists Shlomi Eldarand and Ruth Yuval, said UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had personally warned Netanyahu that Hamas was preparing a major operation.According to the newspaper's mostly anonymous sourcing, the warning originated with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who told a former Palestinian official the group was planning what he called an "earthquake." That message was passed to an Emirati adviser, then to the UAE leader, who relayed it to Netanyahu."The emir hoped that despite his reserved response, Netanyahu would take the message seriously and take action," said an adviser to the UAE leader.However, Haaretz reported that Netanyahu responded calmly to the warning and did not notify the heads of the defense establishment – Shin Bet, Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff.Netanyahu's office denied the account entirely, calling it "an absolute lie" and disputing that any such call with the Emirati leader took place.The report landed weeks before Israel's Oct. 27 elections and drew immediate condemnation from Netanyahu's rivals.Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief who has become Netanyahu's leading electoral challenger, wrote on social media that Netanyahu "received dozens of warnings for Oct. 7 and ignored them all," calling him "unfit" for office and dismissing his past explanations, including that he was not woken promptly the morning of the attack, as "pathetic."Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, also a candidate in the upcoming vote, went further, saying Netanyahu "bears personal and direct responsibility" for the deaths on Oct. 7 and "cannot continue to serve in his position for even one more minute."The UAE established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords, brokered during President Donald Trump's first term, and Netanyahu has long touted the relationship as a signature achievement of his tenure.The Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas fighters crossed into Israel and killed people at a music festival and nearby communities, left 1,221 dead, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures, and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage into Gaza.Israel's subsequent military campaign has killed 73,658 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose casualty figures the United Nations considers reliable, and left much of the territory destroyed.The competing accounts are likely to intensify scrutiny of Netanyahu's security record as Israelis head toward the polls in seven weeks.

Americans risk exposure to anti-parasite drugs and banned antibiotics in chunks of years-old, potentially rotten meat after a controversial friend of Melania Trump's was invited for a meeting at the White House, according to a new analysis. Eric Schlosser, the author of “Fast Food Nation," penned an opinion piece for the New York Times on Monday in which he strenuously warned Americans to avoid President Donald Trump's 660 million pounds of inexpensive "mystery meat." "They’re small chunks of frozen meat that could have been kept in cold storage overseas for years," wrote Schlosser. "They are the quintessence of generic industrial meat, imported here to be subsequently processed in massive grinders that combine pieces of tens of thousands of cattle from multiple countries, mainly into fast food hamburgers."Schlosser argued that the mysterious source of this meat presents a risk because of the problematic processing practices of meat exporters abroad. Beef from Uruguay was found to be tainted with an anti-parasitic drug and Argentinian beef has repeatedly tested positive for a banned antibiotic that can cause serious blood disorders, Schlosser reported. Those countries have nothing on Brazil, the world's largest beef exporter. "In 2017, the Brazilian federal police raided nearly 200 meatpacking plants after allegations that government inspectors and politicians were being bribed to allow the sale of contaminated beef," Schlosser wrote. "Rotten meat treated with ascorbic acid and other chemicals to mask the contamination had been sold to hospitals and schools in Brazil and also been exported."In August, Trump announced the U.S. United States would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of imported ground beef into the country, without a usual tariff, for the next 90 days — claiming it would lower prices for American consumers. But Schlosser argued that the economics aren't going to pan out for American cattle ranchers or consumers, but meatpacking companies and fast food chains. This is why Schlosser issued a stark warning to his readers. "If you want to eat a hamburger, I suggest going to your local butcher shop, rather than the supermarket, ordering cuts of American beef, and asking for them to be ground on the premises," he wrote. "Otherwise, there’s really no way of knowing what’s in your meat, or how many international borders it crossed to reach your plate."So why did Trump cut this problematic deal?Schlosser has an interesting theory: it came from a White House meeting between Trump and Joesley Batista, the owner of meatpacking giant JBS, who was jailed in Brazil for paying $186 million in bribes to almost 2,000 politicians."Mr. Batista gained the White House meeting last November...because of his friendship with Melania Trump," wrote Schlosser. "Not long afterward, JBS got approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a privilege the company had sought for almost a decade."

The far-right Alternative for Germany party thanked the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, after decisively winning a key regional election on Sunday, sparking alarm across Europe and around the globe.Ulrich Siegmund, AfD’s lead candidate in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, praised Musk—who has openly advocated for the far-right, xenophobic party—for his support and “clear and highly important perspective on the political developments of our time—including here in Germany.” Siegmund wrote that if AfD ends up leading the state government, the party “would very much welcome the opportunity for strong and constructive cooperation,” adding that “Germany would once again be a place worth investing in.”Siegmund’s post on the social media platform X, which Musk owns, came after AfD won just over 44% of the vote in the Saxony-Anhalt election, trouncing the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz. CDU finished a distant second with 17.1% of the vote.“Well done!” Musk wrote, in German, following AfD’s election win. The mega-billionaire has called AfD “the only hope for Germany.”US President Donald Trump, a political ally of Musk, posted to Truth Social a screenshot of exit polls showing AfD leading the regional election on Sunday afternoon.“Leave it to Trump to celebrate the victory of a far-right German party that shows sympathy for the Nazis, downplays the Holocaust, and flirts with Putin,” Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote on social media in response to the US president.The Associated Press noted that “to win an absolute majority, AfD needed to clinch 42 of the 83 seats in the state parliament, but the party appeared on track to win 39. Depending on the ultimate make-up of parliament, it could still end up leading the state government.” Siegmund would be the first far-right leader to govern a German state since 1945.But other German parties have refused to work with AfD, raising doubts about its ability to form a government in Saxony-Anhalt, which has a population of around 2.1 million people.David Adler, co-general coordinator of the Progressive International, wrote that the election “sent a clear message, to Germany as to all of Europe, that the far-right rampage is not slowing down, but accelerating instead.”AfD focuses heavily on immigration, vowing “deportation from minute one” and calling for abolition of “the fundamental right to asylum.”“In addition to deporting immigrants, the party has proposed cutting funding for public broadcasters, banning gay pride flags in schools, and teaching more Russian, as well as tax breaks for large families and free childcare,” The New York Times reported. The newspaper noted that Siegmund declined to condemn supporters who “chanted his surname... in the style of the Nazi salute, ‘Sieg Heil.’”European officials voiced deep concern about AfD’s surge in the regional election, with France’s Europe minister calling the results “a serious moment.”“Nationalism and xenophobia will never be a solution,” said Benjamin Haddad. “We must listen with humility to the anger, the concerns, the fears, and respond to them. We cannot forget our history. That is the meaning behind the choices made by France and Germany.”Spanish Julen Bollain wrote on social media that “the far-right is managing to turn discontent, economic insecurity, and disaffection into votes.”“AfD is doing something that should especially worry the left: transforming precarity, frustration, and disaffection into political identity and votes,” Bollain added. “And if we don’t manage to give a collective response to the existing social discontent, someone always shows up ready to turn it into fear, hate, and scapegoats. And there they beat us, because they move like fish in water.”This story was published in partnership with Common Dreams. Read the original here.