President Donald Trump announced a trade deal with Vietnam on Wednesday, giving the United States “total access to their markets for trade” while imposing a 20% tariff on Vietnam’s imports into the United States.

BOISE, Idaho – A man charged with stabbing four University of Idaho students to death in 2022 pleaded guilty on Wednesday to first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors that spares the former graduate student in criminal justice the death sentence. Bryan Kohberger, 30, previously pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and burglary charges in a gruesome multiple homicide in 2022 that stunned the small college town of Moscow in northwestern Idaho and drew national media attention. The plea agreement, as outlined in court by the judge, calls for Kohberger to be sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison and to waive his rights to appeal or seek reconsideration of the sentence. Relatives of at least two of the victims attended Wednesday’s court hearing, which began at 1 p.m. ET in Boise, the Idaho state capital. According to news media accounts, the families were divided about the plea deal. Kohberger, who has remained in pre-trial custody since his arrest more than two years ago, was due to return to court for formal sentencing on July 23-24. Under questioning from the judge, Kohberger stated that he was pleading guilty as charged to four counts of first-degree homicide and a charge of felony burglary. He also asserted that he was doing so freely, believed it to be in his best interests, was satisfied with his legal counsel, and understood the consequences of his plea. Answering “yes” to a series of questions from the judge, he also admitted to committing each of the crimes. At the time of the killings, Kohberger was pursuing a doctorate degree in criminal justice at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, a short distance from Moscow, where the four victims were undergraduates at the University of Idaho. The murders occurred during the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, in an off-campus house shared by five women. Three of the roommates – Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho – were found slain inside the house along with Kernodle’s boyfriend, Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington. All suffered multiple stab wounds, according to authorities. The family of Goncalves, in a statement through their attorney, criticized the plea agreement as a mishandled, “secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims’ families.” Asked outside the courthouse prior to Wednesday’s hearing whether he believed the four life sentences provided justice in the case, the victim’s father, Steve Goncalves, said, “No, of course not. It’s daycare. Prison is daycare.” (Reporting by Matt McKnight and Eric Cox in Boise, Idaho; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee were outraged that President Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Russia. There are just two problems with that: he didn’t lift sanctions. And the policy they’re slamming began under President Joe Biden. “While both parties in Congress push to tighten sanctions, Trump signals—again—whose side he’s on,” the official account for the Democrats on the House Affairs Committee posted on X Monday. “He won’t hold Russia accountable. Congress must.” The account was referencing a general license renewal from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which allows certain Russian banks to temporarily operate without sanctions. The post did not mention that the license is a continuation of a policy implemented by the Biden administration in December 2024, and renewed again in January 2025 — weeks before Trump took office. A Treasury Department spokesman confirmed to The Daily Wire that the general license is not a sanctions rollback, but an extension of an earlier measure. “The Trump administration has not lifted sanctions; all sanctions remain in effect, and there has been no change to our sanctions policy in regard to Russia,” the spokesperson said. “This general license is a continuation of a general license initially granted in 2024 under the Biden administration.” A Republican spokesman for the committee called the Democrats’ post attacking Trump “verifiably false” in a statement to The Daily Wire. “We are not taking pressure off of Russia, and these licenses were greenlit under Biden,” the spokesperson said. “Democrats are still grasping for anything to lie about President Trump’s record on Russia.” The spokesman added that “Democrats lying about President Trump for a few clicks does nothing to end the bloodshed in Ukraine.” The Democrats’ House Foreign Affairs Committee has not yet deleted the post. But a Democrat spokesman for the committee backtracked in a statement to The Daily Wire, claiming that the Trump administration is “carving out exceptions.” “Unfortunately, the Administration appears more focused on carving out exceptions to existing sanctions than on imposing new ones, despite strong bipartisan support in Congress for a policy of strength,” the spokesman said. They added that Ranking Member Gregory Meeks drafted Section 307 of his Ukraine Support Act “to explicitly block this general license — regardless of which President issued it.” “Ranking Member Meeks’ position is clear and consistent: he supports additional sanctions on Russia to defund Putin’s war machine,” the spokesperson said. The general license was implemented by the outgoing Biden administration to give Trump leverage in negotiating between Russia and Ukraine. A former senior advisor for OFAC under the Biden administration also concluded that the Trump administration did not lift sanctions. “This is not a lifting of any sanctions — it simply extends a general license that was previously in place,” Brad Brooks-Rubin, a former Senior Advisor in the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. Department of State,  told the Kyiv Post. The June 27 general license extension temporarily permits 13 major Russian financial institutions involved in civilian nuclear energy transactions to continue operating without sanctions.

Freedom of speech has won a decisive victory in Australia. On Tuesday, a Melbourne tribunal overturned the Australian government’s censorship order against Canadian street advocate Chris “Billboard Chris” Elston for an X post critical of gender ideology. Back in 2024, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner had ordered X to remove Chris’ post, claiming it constituted “adult cyber abuse” under the country’s Online Safety Act. The post linked to a Daily Mail article about a WHO appointee and referred to the individual using biologically accurate pronouns. No threats. No private information. Just public facts and an opinion the government didn’t like. X initially resisted, but eventually geo-blocked the post in the country while filing its own appeal. Billboard Chris, who travels the world engaging in conversations exposing the truth about gender ideology prompted by his wearable signs, refused to bow down to the order. With legal support from ADF International and the Human Rights Law Alliance, he challenged the eSafety Commissioner, and won in a decisive victory not just for himself, but for everyone who values the right to speak freely. The Administrative Review Tribunal found what should have been obvious from the beginning — the post wasn’t intended to cause harm, wasn’t likely to be seen by the complainant, and was consistent with Chris’s well-known public message — namely, that children are never born in the wrong body. It ruled clearly that this did not constitute a form of abuse and revoked the takedown order. The Tribunal recognized what the eSafety Commissioner refused to acknowledge, which is that this isn’t about harassment of any kind. The protection of Chris’ expression is about upholding the basic right to participate in a public conversation, one that touches on some of the most urgent questions of our time. To silence that conversation under the guise of “cyber abuse” is both intellectually dishonest and dangerous. The absurdity of the government’s case was exposed in the hearing itself. Chris had merely reposted a widely read article that included publicly available information about the transgender activist appointed to a WHO panel of “experts” — information the activist had willingly shared on social media. Instead of defending public transparency, the government claimed those details were irrelevant and demanded censorship. JULY 4 SALE: Get Six Months Of DW+ Free The Tribunal’s written decision was clear: “The post, although phrased offensively, is consistent with views Mr Elston has expressed elsewhere in circumstances where the expression of the view had no malicious intent. For example, his statement placed on billboards that he is prepared to wear in public ‘children are never born in the wrong body’ expresses the same idea about the immutability of biology that he expresses, albeit much more provocatively, in the post”. Further, it held that, “an ordinary reasonable person would not conclude that that it is likely that the post was intended to have an effect of causing serious harm to Mr Cook”. This case is about more than just one post or even one country’s speech laws. Not only will this decision likely shape future enforcement decisions, but also Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has just been named in a U.S. congressional investigation for colluding with foreign governments and corporate cartels to suppress speech worldwide — including in the United States. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee released a 100-page report detailing how Grant worked with GARM — a World Economic Forum-linked advertising consortium — to push platforms like X into silencing disfavored views. She demanded global takedowns of lawful content. She participated in pressure campaigns against X after Musk’s takeover. And she allowed so-called “brand safety” coalitions to influence her regulatory decisions. This is coordinated censorship. The report lays out how GARM and other WEF-affiliated coalitions, working with officials like Grant, sought to blacklist voices they disagreed with under the pretense of maintaining a “safe” internet. In reality, they were constructing a global censorship machine — one that’s ideologically aligned, politically unaccountable, and willing to cross borders to silence dissent. Billboard Chris’ case is living proof of what this looks like. If the Tribunal had sided with the Commissioner, it would have emboldened this aggressive censorship campaign and reinforced the idea that a government can suppress the speech of any person on any platform, even beyond traditional jurisdictional boundaries. And make no mistake — that’s exactly what the eSafety Commissioner and its allies are trying to do. Fortunately, Billboard Chris’ free speech victory is a warning to the censors. He stood up to a system designed to silence him, and he won. But the same people trying to censor speech in Australia are working to do the same everywhere else.  On the same day of Chris’ victory, the European Union took a significant step toward strengthening online censorship, beefing up its censorial Digital Services Act by enforcing the accompanying “Code of Conduct on Disinformation”. The DSA enables Brussels bureaucrats to control online speech at scale — both in Europe and globally — under the guise of “safety” and “protecting democracy”. Platforms that fail to remove content ambiguously deemed “illegal” face massive financial penalties and even suspension. Coupled with the framework’s approach to “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “hate speech,” the DSA could lead to the sweeping removal of online content. Threats to free speech online are evidently immense and growing, but Billboard Chris’ successful challenge shows that this tide can be turned. Courageous individuals, armed with principle and the law, can stand up to the censorship industrial complex — and win. And their victories protect not just their own speech, but those too who would come after them. Others must be emboldened by the lead of this Canadian father and vigilantly defend against censorship if we are to see free speech prevail. * * * Robert Clarke is a barrister and director of advocacy for ADF International, which coordinated the legal defense of Billboard Chris in Australia. Follow him on X at Rob_ADFIntl The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Kate Middleton famously missed the second day of the Royal Ascot on June 18. Her decision not to attend came after a hectic week for the royal family. She spent June 14 at Trooping the Colour and attended the Order of the Garter in Windsor on June 16, but made the difficult decision to remain home on June 18 for the second day of the horse race. Kate Middleton did not make a public statement about her absence at the time but recently spoke out at her first appearance since missing the event. The princess, who has been very vocal about her cancer treatment and recovery, puts her health first. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Prince and Princess of Wales (@princeandprincessofwales) Kate Middleton Opened Up About Her Cancer Treatment And Recovery According to People, the princess shared her struggle with cancer treatment and recovery at Colchester Hospital in Essex on July 2.  “You put on a sort of brave face, stoicism through treatment. Treatment’s done, then it’s like, ‘I can crack on, get back to normal,’ but actually, the phase afterwards is really, really difficult,” Kate Middleton said. Kate Middleton admitted that the transition from patient to self-care and advocacy post-cancer treatment is complex. “You’re not necessarily under the clinical team any longer, but you’re not able to function normally at home as you perhaps once used to,” she said. “And actually, someone to help talk you through that, show you and guide you through that sort of phase that comes after treatment, I think is really valuable.” While visiting the hospital, Kate Middleton had a chance to help plant the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity’s Catherine’s Rose plants in the garden. She shared photos of the special moment on Instagram. “Grateful to everyone who helped create this special space for wellbeing, and to all those working and volunteering here to support patients. Thank you to those too who generously shared their stories of recovery,” Kate Middleton shared. This story’s featured image is by Stefan Rousseau – WPA Pool/Getty Images. The post Princess Kate Opens Up About ” Really, Really Difficult” Phase Following Cancer appeared first on InspireMore.

When you think about the greatest country singers of all time, Dolly Parton is undoubtedly on that list. Many consider her the Queen of Country Music, and for good reason. She’s been in the business for more than 60 years and had 25 songs top the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. But Dolly’s more than just a singer; she’s an incredibly talented songwriter and a savvy businesswoman. She recently announced her newest project, and fans can’t wait. Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel will open in Nashville, bringing all the best of Dolly to one place. “SongTeller Hotel, Nashville is more than just a place to rest your head, it’s a hub of music, style, and hospitality designed the Dolly-way. Sprinkled with glamor, artistic surprises and a sense of humor – it’s an experience as unforgettable as the entertainer herself,” the website explains. “In every corner, you’ll find playful pieces of art and décor, accompanied by a soundtrack that reflects Dolly’s incredible music career. SongTeller Hotel, Nashville celebrates the people, talent and setting of the destination, weaving the local music and culinary scenes together.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel (@songtellerhotel) Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel Will Be A Place For Guests And Artists To Mingle The hotel shared some sneak peeks on Instagram, and this place looks incredible. “The Listening Lobby… where stories are sung and moments are made. We can’t wait to welcome our guests into a space where Nashville’s rising stars take the stage and stories come to life! Just steps away from Broadway, legendary venues, and cultural gems, Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel will be your front-row seat to Music City,” a post explains. “Super excited! I can’t wait to experience everything SongTeller Nashville has to offer,” a fan shared. “On MY GOD! Dolly…what can I say… I’ll just say what I always say. You’re The Queen of Everything! Love you, Dolly,” another fan wrote. The SongTeller Hotel agrees and can’t wait to share more. “We share your excitement. Follow us for updates and be part of the story!” This story’s featured image is by DFree via Shutterstock. The post Dolly Parton Branches Out With Incredible New SongTeller Hotel appeared first on InspireMore.