AOC blasted as too moderate by Maoist DSA faction as 2028 buzz grows

August 21, 2026 10:05am EDT / Fox News

The Marxist-Leninist-Maoist caucus called AOC an ‘opportunist dilettante’ over her stance on ‘Palestine’ and policing

By Hannah Brennan , Peter D’Abrosca

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The Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) Liberation Caucus is rejecting Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., as a potential candidate for Democrats in the 2028 presidential election, arguing she is too far removed from the socialist agenda.

“Liberation condemns Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s continued retreat from socialist politics and rejects any effort to present her as the future presidential standard-bearer for DSA, or for the broader socialist movement,” the DSA Liberation Caucus wrote in the statement.

DSA slammed Ocasio-Cortez as an “opportunist” and condemned her vote to defend Israel’s right to exist and for not holding firm as an anti-Zionist.

“In short, it was determined that she had failed to meet conditions concerning Palestine solidarity,” the statement said.

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS ERUPT OVER 2028 ENDORSEMENT AS AOC SPECULATION GROWS: ‘DANGEROUS PATH’

The Democratic Socialists of America’s Liberation Caucus is condemning Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., with a statement announcing the organization will not endorse her as a 2028 presidential candidate as speculation among potential candidates grows.(Getty Images)

After withdrawing a conditional endorsement of the “Squad” Democrat in 2024, DSA’s National Political Committee “determined” that Ocasio-Cortez hosted a public panel with an alleged Zionist organization — the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

She was also trashed for joining a group of House Democrats to co-sign a statement — after voting against providing Israel with supplemental weapon funding — that voiced support for Israel’s right to have defensive systems.

The statement continued to attack her, pivoting to her recent remarks in an interview with ABC, where Ocasio-Cortez walked back on her support for the movement to defund the police and the language used around policing in 2020, calling the 2020 “Woke 1” era for progressives “crazyyyyy.”

“She has dismissed the mass radicalization around policing and abolition as part of the supposed excesses of ‘Woke 1’, seeking to reduce the historic Black-led uprising of 2020 to an embarrassing political phase,” the statement reads.

It continues, “Ironically, her first electoral victory came in the heat of ‘Woke 1’, where she trafficked in the language of abolition. Now that she feels that she no longer needs it, she condemns it. This is the action of an opportunist dilettante, devoid of any principles whatsoever, not a socialist.”

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ SHRUGS OFF PAST ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ COMMENTS, JOKING ‘WOKE 1 WAS CRAZY’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the New York Is Not For Sale rally on Oct. 26, 2025.(Neil Constantine/NurPhoto)

The DSA’s rejection of Ocasio-Cortez comes shortly after the organization recently announced its new program that calls for the complete elimination of the Senate, president and Supreme Court. The DSA said this program, “Workers Deserve More,” must be accepted and promoted by all candidates in order to receive a formal DSA endorsement.

“This is why the current rumblings for and prospects of an AOC presidential campaign should be met with a clear answer from the socialist left: No,” the group said in the statement. “We will not endorse or give succor to a campaign to put a social democrat at the head of an empire, where she will make even more capitulations to the imperialists, and drag our organization into antagonistic contradiction after antagonistic contradiction.”

While the national DSA does not endorse Ocasio-Cortez, and vehemently opposes her presidential bid, the New York City DSA chapter has routinely endorsed Ocasio-Cortez throughout her races. The statement claims that the NYC DSA chapter has hinted at “splitting away” from the DSA over disagreements similar to endorsing Ocasio-Cortez.

HASAN PIKER VOWS NEVER TO CRITICIZE MAO ZEDONG IN RESURFACED VIDEO, HAILS HIM AS ‘GREAT LEADER’

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“This is not the behavior of socialist cadres,” the Liberation Caucus said in the statement.

There has been widespread speculation that Ocasio-Cortez will run for president or Senate in 2028, and is polling as the leading choice among Democrats. But she has not yet formally announced if she will run.

Formed in 2025, the DSA Liberation Caucus openly describes itself as a “Marxist-Leninist-Maoist caucus in Democratic Socialists of America.” The group’s website has a page dedicated to a list defending Maoism that includes labeling the period of mass starvation and disaster as “misconception 4” on the list.

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Both the DSA Liberation Caucus and Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Hannah is a Production Assistant for the Politics team at Fox News Digital.

瑞典一所学校发生持械袭击事件 多人受伤

2026年8月21日 23:47 / 联合早报

8月21日，瑞典中部法格什塔市一所学校发生袭击事件，警方已封锁现场。 （路透社）

瑞典中部法格什塔市一所高中星期五（8月21日）发生持械袭击事件，造成多人受伤。

法新社报道，法格什塔市政府在一份声明中说：“一名持剑袭击者闯入布林内尔学校（Brinellskolan），造成多人受伤。”声明补充说，袭击者已被警方拘留。

据警方称，他们于下午2时左右接到袭击报告。

市政府没有透露受伤人数，但在声明中说，警方仍在搜查学校，附近几所学校已被封锁。袭击动机尚不清楚。

《晚报》报道，至少两人受伤，一名持刀男子被警方击中腿部。

瑞典总理克里斯特松在一份书面声明中告诉法新社：“今天，在法格什塔的一所学校发生了一起严重事件。”

“有报道称有人受伤。我们目前尚不清楚袭击背后的原因，但我们知道警方正在全力调查。”

反对党社会民主党领袖安德森在社媒X平台上发文，对法格什塔中学发生的“可怕事件”表示悲痛。

“我与所有受影响的人和相关人员同在。”

“校园暴力事件会影响到我们国家的每一个人。在这个艰难的时刻，全瑞典都与法格什塔中学站在一起。”

‘My Guardian and Protector’: Natalie Harp letters express her devotion to Trump

Aug 21, 2026, 9:19 AM ET / CNN

By Kaanita Iyer, Alayna Treene

Updated 1 hr 51 min ago

Updated Aug 21, 2026, 10:10 AM ET

PUBLISHED Aug 21, 2026, 9:19 AM ET

Natalie Harp’s letters reveal the extent of their close connection

2:40 • Source: CNN

[image_4]

Natalie Harp’s letters reveal the extent of their close connection

2:40

President Donald Trump’s close aide Natalie Harp expressed her utmost loyalty to him in at least two letters addressed to the president, which were published by The Daily Beast on Thursday amid increased scrutiny of the close aide’s relationship to Trump.

“I want things to always be right between us,” Harp wrote in one of the letters, which were printed out and signed. It began with “Dear Mr. President” and concluded with, “With all my heart, Natalie.” Excerpts of one of the letters had previously been published by the New York Times.

Harp’s constant and dedicated presence at Trump’s side has been in the spotlight this week after Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff mentioned her by name in a now-viral speech attacking Trump. The Georgia senator swiped at the president’s “travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar,” a reference to her joining the president — along with a very limited group of aides — when he secretly boarded a smaller aircraft to leave Turkey due to a threat from Iran in July.

She added in the letter from 2023: “I never want to bring you anything but joy. I’m sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don’t want to ever let you down. Thank you for being my Guardian and Protector in this Life.”

In another letter, Harp reminisced about their relationship when she was a host on the conservative One America News Network.

“I miss the days when you used to call, during my Talkshow days, and we’d talk about everything and nothing,” Harp wrote. “I want to get back to that synergy. We shouldn’t have to talk about work all the time!!”

In the same letter, Harp added: “And please, when I fail, will you tell me? You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more.”

[image_5]

US President Donald Trump and aide Natalie Harp exit Marine One on the Ellipse near the White House on August 16, 2026.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

CNN has not independently confirmed that Harp wrote or sent these letters to Trump in 2023. The Daily Beast said the writer Michael Wolff obtained them while he was writing a book about Trump’s 2024 campaign.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle defended Harp in a statement to CNN, saying she is “one of the most loyal and hardest working aides on President Trump’s team.”

But White House officials have privately acknowledged in recent days that the sharper, widespread attacks have had the adverse effect of bringing more attention to Harp’s relationship with Trump.

Harp is so close to Trump that she once rode in an SUV trunk to accompany him to a court appearance in New York City in October 2023, CNN reported on Tuesday. There wasn’t room for her in the vehicle, but she insisted that Trump had personally asked her to attend and was determined not to be left behind.

Harp is omnipresent in Trump’s orbit, officials familiar with her role have told CNN. But unlike past staff secretaries and aides to the president — like Trump’s former personal secretary Madeleine Westerhout, who similarly served as the president’s gatekeeper of information during his first term — she doesn’t sit outside the Oval Office, but in it. Harp is with Trump much of the day, sitting in on meetings and in constant communication with him.

She speaks with Trump late into the night about social media posts, the officials said. Harp is also a channel for foreign leaders to try to reach the president and is tasked with contacting people he sees on television. She is someone he will ask to send notes to others when he doesn’t want to reach out directly.

Their working relationship is so effective, officials said, because of her total loyalty to the president.

But Harp’s methods have irked senior aides and at times prompted efforts to box her out of the president’s inner circle, according to multiple sources who described her dynamic with Trump.

The former television host began working for Trump after crediting him with saving her life. Harp has become a main conduit between the president and the outside world, passing along messages from allies and setting up meetings, typing out Truth Social posts and toting printouts of laudatory articles, all while staying in close physical proximity at all hours of the day.

She is known as the “human printer” — a title she referenced in one of the letters, in which she said Trump “forced me to ‘unplug’” during a trip to Scotland and Ireland.

“I didn’t have to be ‘Human Printer.’ I could take time to enjoy good conversation, and still get all my work done at the end of the day. In fact, I even had time to take long morning and evening walks to enjoy each Sunrise and Sunset (though I did forget to eat and sleep!),” she wrote.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.

瑞典一所学校发生持械袭击事件 多人受伤

2026年8月21日 23:47 / 联合早报

8月21日，瑞典中部法格什塔市一所学校发生袭击事件，警方已封锁现场。 （路透社）

瑞典中部法格什塔市一所高中星期五（8月21日）发生持械袭击事件，造成多人受伤。

法新社报道，法格什塔市政府在一份声明中说：“一名持剑袭击者闯入布林内尔学校（Brinellskolan），造成多人受伤。”声明补充说，袭击者已被警方拘留。

据警方称，他们于下午2时左右接到袭击报告。

市政府没有透露受伤人数，但在声明中说，警方仍在搜查学校，附近几所学校已被封锁。袭击动机尚不清楚。

《晚报》报道，至少两人受伤，一名持刀男子被警方击中腿部。

瑞典总理克里斯特松在一份书面声明中告诉法新社：“今天，在法格什塔的一所学校发生了一起严重事件。”

“有报道称有人受伤。我们目前尚不清楚袭击背后的原因，但我们知道警方正在全力调查。”

反对党社会民主党领袖安德森在社媒X平台上发文，对法格什塔中学发生的“可怕事件”表示悲痛。

“我与所有受影响的人和相关人员同在。”

“校园暴力事件会影响到我们国家的每一个人。在这个艰难的时刻，全瑞典都与法格什塔中学站在一起。”

Why Dubai may be vital to the Trump administration’s economic war on Iran

2026-08-21T11:27:00-0400 / CBS News

By

Emmet Lyons Producer
Emmet Lyons is a news desk editor at the CBS News London bureau, coordinating and producing stories for all CBS News platforms. Prior to joining CBS News, Emmet worked as a producer at CNN for four years.

Read Full Bio

Updated on: August 21, 2026 / 11:30 AM EDT / CBS News

President Trump threatened this week to wield an “unprecedented” level of economic warfare against Iran, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed to “collapse” the Islamic Republic regime with the “toughest sanctions in history.”

But the effectiveness of a bolstered economic campaign against Iran may rest largely on one close U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates.

The Emirati city of Dubai, the Middle East’s leading financial center, has long had a reputation as a hub for opaque economic activity. For Iran in particular, the city has offered ways to skirt international sanctions and gain access to vital funds from its sale of oil to countries like China.

“About 80% of Iran’s foreign currency exchange is done in Dubai. So Dubai has served as a major source for Iran’s foreign currency,” Miad Maleki, a former U.S. Treasury official, told CBS News on Friday.

“Iran’s economy today runs based on this kind of scheme of selling oil to China and then either using the funds that are generated from sales of oil to China to pay for imports from China, but also moving some of those funds outside China to jurisdictions like UAE through exchange houses,” he said.

Maleki said he believes “the UAE is going to be very instrumental in cutting off the regime’s access to procuring foreign currencies, but also getting access to its reserves — so funds that it has generated from oil sales to China and are sitting in different banks.”

He told CBS News that if new U.S. sanctions are really going to increase the pain for Iran’s economy, the UAE will be a vital actor in helping to crack down on Iran’s shadowy banking transactions.

U.S. targets shell companies

The U.S. Treasury has in recent weeks targeted a number of shell companies linked to the UAE. The Trump administration has said these shell companies act as a shadow banking system for the Iranian regime.

The targeted companies include Dubai-based HMS Trading FZE, which the Treasury said in a statement earlier this month, “plays a critical role in helping the Iranian regime retrieve revenue from its oil sales overseas, aiding some of Iran’s most prominent exporters of petroleum.”

In the Aug. 7 statement shared with CBS News, the Treasury also said Iran’s Shahr Bank, which is linked to the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had relied heavily on two Dubai-based currency exchange firms to launder money.

The Treasury said U.S. nationals were barred from doing business with all of the Dubai-based companies named in the Aug. 7 statement and that it was imposing secondary sanctions on foreign banks that knowingly do business with the Dubai-based shell companies.

A Trump administration official told CBS News on Friday that “crushing sanctions” and the U.S. naval blockade on Iran had crippled the country’s economy and left it “completely broke.”

“There are many levers the president can crank harder in the weeks and months ahead,” the official said.

UAE says transactions “halted until further notice”

The UAE has said it is taking action against Iran. Afra Al Hameli, a spokesperson for the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced in a social media post this week that, “all trade, commercial exchanges, and financial transactions with Iran have been halted until further notice.”

“The UAE remains firmly committed to safeguarding the integrity of the international financial system,” Al Hameli said.

A recent spate of new attacks by Iran may have been a motivating factor behind the Gulf state’s announcement.

Emirati officials said not long before the announcement about the severed economic ties that Iran had launched two ballistic missiles at the UAE, triggering the country’s air defenses for the first time in weeks, though authorities said the missiles fell into the sea.

UAE officials previously said Iran attacked an Abu Dhabi National Oil Company vessel on Saturday as it transited the Strait of Hormuz, the Reuters news agency reported, citing the state Emirates News Agency.

“I think the UAE and some of these other Gulf countries were getting a lot of hits, or they were feeling the economic effect of Iran’s escalation and closure of the Strait of Hormuz. But they were kind of sitting on the side and watching how the U.S. administration might come to some kind of an agreement or deal with the regime to put an end to the hostility,” Maleki said.

“I think the Emiratis are now realizing they can’t just sit on the side, the economy can’t continue to take this current situation … So, I think the Emiratis are becoming more proactive at this point.”

“自愿联盟”将举行会议 重申支持乌克兰

2026年8月21日 23:54 / 联合早报

1月6日，德国总理默茨、乌克兰总统泽连斯基和法国总统马克龙在巴黎爱丽舍宫举行的“自愿联盟”乌克兰安全保障峰会上讲话。 （法新社）

法国总统府星期五说，乌克兰的盟友国家将于星期一（8月24日）举行会议，重申对基辅的支持。此次会议将在乌克兰独立日举行。

法新社报道，爱丽舍宫称，此次“自愿联盟”会议将由法国总统马克龙、德国总理默茨和英国首相伯纳姆共同主持。

一名欧盟官员说，包括欧洲理事会主席科斯塔在内的约10名领导人将出席在基辅举行的联盟会议。

北约宣布，其副秘书长舍克林斯卡娅将远程参会。

此次会议召开之际，莫斯科正频繁使用弹道导弹袭击基辅。乌克兰总统泽连斯基星期四（20日）敦促国际社会对莫斯科作出回应。

“自愿联盟”由法国和英国发起，旨在向乌克兰提供俄乌战争中所需的军事支持。

在7月的会议期间，盟友宣布加强对基辅的防空支持，并计划在停火后部署部队进行演习，以加大对俄罗斯的压力，促使其结束战争。

“自愿联盟”将举行会议 重申支持乌克兰

2026年8月21日 23:54 / 联合早报

1月6日，德国总理默茨、乌克兰总统泽连斯基和法国总统马克龙在巴黎爱丽舍宫举行的“自愿联盟”乌克兰安全保障峰会上讲话。 （法新社）

法国总统府星期五说，乌克兰的盟友国家将于星期一（8月24日）举行会议，重申对基辅的支持。此次会议将在乌克兰独立日举行。

法新社报道，爱丽舍宫称，此次“自愿联盟”会议将由法国总统马克龙、德国总理默茨和英国首相伯纳姆共同主持。

一名欧盟官员说，包括欧洲理事会主席科斯塔在内的约10名领导人将出席在基辅举行的联盟会议。

北约宣布，其副秘书长舍克林斯卡娅将远程参会。

此次会议召开之际，莫斯科正频繁使用弹道导弹袭击基辅。乌克兰总统泽连斯基星期四（20日）敦促国际社会对莫斯科作出回应。

“自愿联盟”由法国和英国发起，旨在向乌克兰提供俄乌战争中所需的军事支持。

在7月的会议期间，盟友宣布加强对基辅的防空支持，并计划在停火后部署部队进行演习，以加大对俄罗斯的压力，促使其结束战争。

俄罗斯袭击乌克兰购物中心 造六死90余伤

2026年8月21日 23:57 / 联合早报

8月21日，消防员在扑灭乌克兰克里维里赫市一家购物中心的大火。 （法新社）

俄罗斯无人机星期五（8月21日）袭击了乌克兰中部城市克里维里赫的一家购物中心，造成至少六人死亡，约90人受伤。

路透社报道，地区长官汉扎在Telegram上说，在白天的这次袭击中，有六名儿童受伤。“21人伤势严重，其中包括一名儿童。”

他发布了一张照片，显示一座大型工业建筑正冒出滚滚黑烟。

泽连斯基称此次袭击“绝对是冷酷无情、卑鄙无耻的”，并表示第二架俄罗斯无人机在第一架无人机袭击半小时后又袭击了购物中心，显然是蓄意破坏紧急救援行动。

泽连斯基在Telegram上说，“此类袭击无异于恐怖主义行径”，并敦促国际社会追究俄罗斯的责任。

俄罗斯和乌克兰都在升级针对对方的空袭。俄罗斯星期四（20日）向乌克兰首都基辅发射弹道导弹，造成17人死亡。乌克兰也袭击了石油设施和后勤基础设施，试图削弱莫斯科的战争能力。

俄罗斯袭击乌克兰购物中心 造六死90余伤

2026年8月21日 23:57 / 联合早报

8月21日，消防员在扑灭乌克兰克里维里赫市一家购物中心的大火。 （法新社）

俄罗斯无人机星期五（8月21日）袭击了乌克兰中部城市克里维里赫的一家购物中心，造成至少六人死亡，约90人受伤。

路透社报道，地区长官汉扎在Telegram上说，在白天的这次袭击中，有六名儿童受伤。“21人伤势严重，其中包括一名儿童。”

他发布了一张照片，显示一座大型工业建筑正冒出滚滚黑烟。

泽连斯基称此次袭击“绝对是冷酷无情、卑鄙无耻的”，并表示第二架俄罗斯无人机在第一架无人机袭击半小时后又袭击了购物中心，显然是蓄意破坏紧急救援行动。

泽连斯基在Telegram上说，“此类袭击无异于恐怖主义行径”，并敦促国际社会追究俄罗斯的责任。

俄罗斯和乌克兰都在升级针对对方的空袭。俄罗斯星期四（20日）向乌克兰首都基辅发射弹道导弹，造成17人死亡。乌克兰也袭击了石油设施和后勤基础设施，试图削弱莫斯科的战争能力。

The Odds: The Florida Project

9:51 AM EDT, Fri August 21, 2026 / By Ainsley Ehlers, CNN

The Odds: The Florida Project

Florida is seeing a massive voter registration shift and redistricting that is turning the state further into a Republican stronghold. CNN New’s Central John Berman and Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten look at this accelerating red tide and what prediction markets expect for the Senate race.

3:40 • Source: CNN