FBI Most Wanted fraudster Herbert Leon Kimble, accused of a $1.2 billion Medicare fraud, was captured in the Philippines on June 11 and later deported. The 60-year-old ran a scheme from 2014 to 2019 that targeted Medicare beneficiaries with unnecessary orthopedic braces prescribed through inadequate telemedicine visits. Prescriptions were sold to equipment companies that billed Medicare over $1.2 billion. Kimble pleaded guilty in 2019 but fled before his 2024 sentencing. The arrest was announced by the DOJ, with the Philippines confirming the action in Pasig City. Vice President JD Vance, chairman of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud established by President Trump’s March 16 executive order, commented on the capture in a June 19 X post. The task force aims to stop fraud in federal benefit programs exploited by various groups. Another list member, Said Abdullahi Ereg, surrendered on June 10 for allegedly laundering millions from a COVID-19 child feeding program. With two captured since the list launch, six remain wanted for crimes including COVID relief fraud and investor scams. FBI Director Kash Patel and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche highlighted the successes.

Fast-Moving Colorado Blaze Threatens Communities as Evacuations Expand The Aspen Acres Fire spread rapidly across Pueblo and Custer counties, damaging structures and prompting mandatory evacuations. High winds and dry conditions fueled explosive fire growth, while firefighters struggled to deploy air support.

Minimum Wage Fail "Competition is the only good way to decide what people get paid," writes @JohnStossel. Read more (no sign up necessary): theepochtim.es/q9mo9l

🚨 BREAKING: Supreme Court Lifts Limits on Campaign Spending in Federal Elections The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 struck down federal limits restricting political parties from coordinating spending with candidates. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the court’s majority opinion in National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), which was the NRSC’s challenge to provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act. Kavanaugh wrote, “the Federal Election Campaign Act, known as FECA, limits a political party’s campaign spending. Those spending limits necessarily abridge political parties’ freedom of speech.” Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1971 to limit campaign spending and fundraising for federal political office, and amended it in 1974 to limit how much political party committees may accept and spend to influence a federal election. Limits on spending coordinated between party committees and candidates were created based on the theory that a lack of restrictions encourages corruption and allows wealthy donors to exert outsized influence. This is a breaking story that will be updated 👇 theepochtim.es/7p5io6

🚨 BREAKING: Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s Order Restricting Birthright Citizenship The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order excluding children of illegal immigrants and legal temporary visitors from automatic birthright citizenship. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion in the case, which is known as Trump v. Barbara. “A child born on American soil and subject to American law was made an American citizen,” Roberts wrote. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito dissented. Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in part and dissented in part. Trump’s Executive Order 14160 focuses on the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” The executive order states that the amendment has never been interpreted to bestow citizenship universally on everyone born in the United States. According to the order, an individual born in the United States is not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” if that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the country and the individual’s father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of the person’s birth. This is a breaking story that will be updated 👇 theepochtim.es/z3cjji

🚨 BREAKING: Supreme Court Upholds State Laws Barring Boys in Girls’ Sports The Supreme Court on June 30 upheld West Virginia and Idaho laws prohibiting boys in girls’ sports. The 6–3 decision held that the laws didn’t violate Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in education. “Title IX allows schools to provide separate women’s and men’s sports teams defined by biological sex, and West Virginia has permissibly maintained female sports for biological females consistent with Title IX,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion. He also said that state laws do not violate equal protection rules under the 14th Amendment. The decision is expected to ripple through other states by providing legal guidance for legislatures that address the issue. The cases, known as West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Hecox v. Little, arose out of a federal appeals courts ruling that the state’s law violated the 14th Amendment. More specifically, they said that the law violated the equal protection clause by classifying individuals based on their sex and “transgender status.” The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit also said West Virginia’s law violated Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education. This is a breaking story that will be updated 👇 theepochtim.es/0c0p0c

President Donald Trump may not sign a bipartisan bill aimed at making housing more affordable. He called the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act unimportant compared to the Save America Act. Trump canceled signing plans for the housing measure to pressure Congress on the voter ID bill. The housing bill targets shorter permitting times, adds financial incentives, and makes mortgages easier to get. The Save America Act requires proof of U.S. citizenship for federal elections. It passed the House but stalled in the Senate over concerns about eligible voters without documents. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the housing bill would reach Trump soon and become law. Trump has downplayed affordability issues, noting prices are falling. He stated the bill had not arrived yet and would decide within 10 days of receipt. If unsigned, it could become law automatically.

3-Year-Old Pulled Alive From Venezuela Earthquake Rubble Jordanian rescue workers pulled a 3-year-old child alive from the rubble in Caracas, six days after twin earthquakes killed more than 1,700 people in Venezuela.

Trump: Socialism Is 'Biggest Threat' to Nation President Trump said socialism is "really communism" and called it the biggest threat to the United States since the country's founding, surpassing World War II, September 11, and Pearl Harbor. Watch more (no sign up necessary): theepochtim.es/m4vorh

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President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum to expand Americans’ access to automobile parts and allow independent repairs. The order, titled “Lowering the Cost of Living by Promoting the Freedom to Fix,” was issued during a White House ceremony. Trump said it would lower car prices and save money for vehicle owners who repair their cars themselves or use third-party parts. It addresses limits from reliance on authorized dealers that raised costs. The action follows similar steps earlier this year for trucks and commercial vehicles. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the administration will not target people fixing their own vehicles, unlike under President Biden. The memorandum directs the EPA to provide guidance within 30 days on emissions repairs and limits California’s Air Resources Board influence on aftermarket parts nationwide. It also advises deprioritizing enforcement against independent vehicle restorers. SEMA’s CEO praised the order for aiding consumers, manufacturers, and the automotive aftermarket industry. Consumers, auto parts makers, independent businesses, and small repair shops stand to benefit, though critics warn of possible higher emissions.

Dramatic Explosion Levels Home To The Ground In Pennsylvania A worker escaped with minor injuries after a violent blast leveled a house in Sellersville. The cause remains under investigation.

Some Kids Are Born With Skills They Never Learned, Here’s Why A strange pattern has been documented for decades. Young children, usually between the ages of 2 and 4, start speaking words, phrases, and sometimes entire dialects of languages that nobody in their family knows and that they’ve never been exposed to. Somehow, these children arrive already knowing things. If you want to see what researchers think might actually be going on, check out the full article 👇 theepochtim.es/zjqqcy

The Supreme Court voted 5–4 on June 29 to uphold a Mississippi law that allows the state to count mail-in ballots received after Election Day in federal elections. Mississippi law allows the counting of mail-in ballots received within a five-day grace period after Election Day. The statute was enacted in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide flexibility to voters. Federal law sets the Tuesday after the first Monday in November in certain years as Election Day for federal offices. A presidential election takes place every four years; a congressional election occurs every two years. @EpochTimes #SCOTUS

Heavy Smoke Seen as Wildfires Rage Across West Three firefighters died while battling wildfires along the Utah-Colorado border last weekend.

Witkoff, Kushner Heading to Doha for Iran Talks White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel to Doha for high-level Iran talks Tuesday. Read more (no sign up necessary): theepochtim.es/nsdupv

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He said Moscow will finish its war aims by seizing four Ukrainian regions. Zelenskyy proposed a face-to-face meeting and full ceasefire in an open letter. Putin said the idea comes from Ukraine's personnel shortages and Russia's stronger counter-strikes. He added that saving the Kyiv regime is not part of Russia's plans. This position rejects a recent call from U.S. President Donald Trump for a deal between the sides. Putin pointed to Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian targets, including a key Moscow oil refinery run by Gazprom Neft. He described the strikes as efforts to divert forces from liberating Donbas and Novorossiya. Russia annexed Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson in 2022 but does not fully control them. Putin expects Trump's envoys to return for talks after the Iran conflict phase ends. He confirmed no formal agreement came from the Alaska summit. Putin called for faster production of needed air defense systems. He said drone strikes created fuel shortages in some areas but do not affect the front lines.

Supreme Court Denies Appeal in Case Challenging New York COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Supreme Court justices on June 29 declined to hear an appeal of a ruling that upheld New York’s not allowing religious exemptions for its mandate that healthcare workers take COVID-19 vaccines. Six of nine justices declined to consider the case. They did not say why. At least four justices must agree to review an appeal for it to move forward. Justice Neil Gorsuch, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, said that the court should have reviewed the case. New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers originally included exemptions on medical or religious grounds. But when Kathy Hochul became governor, she rescinded religious exemptions, leading to the termination of a number of workers, some of whom lodged a lawsuit against the state and their former employers. A federal judge ruled against the plaintiffs. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit then concluded that even though plaintiffs may have plausibly alleged violations of employee rights under the Civil Rights Act, it needed to uphold the lower court decision because granting religious exemptions “would have required the Private Defendants to violate the state regulation” and in turn subjected the employers to financial penalties or suspensions of their operating licenses. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers do not need to offer reasonable accommodation for employee religious views if doing so would cause the employers to face “an undue hardship,” and such a hardship was faced because of the potential violation of state law and the repercussions that would follow, the appeals court said. Gorsuch said he has doubts about the appeals court posture, which applies even if the law in question is unconstitutional. “It seems to me that state law cannot control whether an employer faces an ‘undue hardship’ for purposes of federal antidiscrimination laws, just like it cannot conclusively resolve what constitutes a ’reasonable accommodation‘ or which criteria are ’necessary' for admission to a public accommodation,” he wrote. “To hold otherwise would appear to leave States free to strip individuals of the protections guaranteed by so many federal civil rights statutes ... all by the simple expedient of proscribing accommodations those statutes promise. Rather than federal civil rights laws standing supreme over contrary state law, they would more nearly bow before it.” Lawyers for defendants did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. “This is a simple case that the court should take up because it presents a recurring and ongoing issue where state law, even unconstitutional as this one is, can be used to trump federal law,” Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, who has been representing the plaintiffs, told The Epoch Times. He added, “It’s a tragedy that the court didn’t take this case to remedy this unconstitutional law and a terrible decision by the court of appeals.” Read 👇 theepochtim.es/3q0up6