Katy Perry 'Appalled And Angry' Over White House Using Her Song In TikTok About Military StrikesKaty Perry said she is “appalled and angry” after the White House used her 2010 song “Firework” in a TikTok about military strikes.“I am deeply appalled and angry to see ‘Firework’ used on the @WhiteHouse TikTok account as a backing track for video footage of military strikes,” Perry posted on X Saturday. “I did not approve this, I was not asked, and I absolutely do not condone it.”“I wrote this song to be an anthem of hope, healing, and inner strength for people going through their darkest personal moments,” the post continued. “To see a message of self-worth and upliftment weaponized to soundtrack destruction and violence is a complete violation of everything my song stands for. My music is for bringing people together, not celebrating warfare.”Latest Live UpdatesHouthis Fire On Saudi Oil Installations On The Red Sea CoastRIYADH, July 25 (Reuters) - Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday and Saudi-backed forces bombed the Houthis, as the war in the Gulf that has disrupted global supplies extended to a second front.Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had targeted and successfully struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu.Video shared on social media and verified by Reuters showed a large column of smoke rising from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan.Read more:A Quarter-Million People Flee Their Homes In France And Spain As Wildfires BurnLEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) — France was preparing to use a massive specially adapted cargo aircraft to dump flame retardants Saturday on a wildfire that has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, including from some suburbs of the wine region city of Bordeaux.Including some 70,000 people evacuated in central Spain, wildfires in southern Europe this week have displaced more than a quarter-million people.French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the hulking A400M aircraft will join what is expected to be a “long and very difficult” battle against the blaze raging in the Gironde region of southwestern France.Read more: Trump Says Israeli PM Netanyahu Will Visit U.S. Next WeekReuters reports:President Donald Trump said on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the U.S. next week.Trump’s comments came in his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on Friday, while he was falsely casting U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer as Palestinian.“I am going to send him (Schumer) a beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow, so he can greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week,” Trump said.“He turned Palestinian,” Trump said of Schumer, who is Jewish, while also joking that sharia law was Schumer’s “new founding.”U.S. Muslim and Jewish advocacy groups have previously criticized Trump for calling Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, a Palestinian, with the rights groups saying Trump uses the term disrespectfully as a slur and as an insult.Netanyahu’s office said earlier that he will travel to Washington on Monday and will meet with Trump on Tuesday. Netanyahu will also attend deceased U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, his office said.The Trump-Netanyahu meeting will come as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran completes five months.(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Tom Hogue and Kim Coghill)Secret Service Officer Who Apprehended Gunman In April Honored At WH Correspondent's DinnerThe White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) honored a Secret Service officer who was shot by the gunman who interrupted the originally scheduled correspondents’ dinner in April while attempting to assassinate the president. Secret Service Officer Victor Gonzales was honored with the President’s Award for Exceptional Service for running directly at the gunman, preventing him from breaking past a security checkpoint. He was wearing a protective vest when he was shot.“His courage that night reflects the core values of the Secret Service,” WHCA President Weijia Jiang of CBS News said while presenting the award. Gonzales, a former Marine, joined the Secret Service in 2022 and is assigned to protecting the White House complex.No one was severely injured during the April dinner after Secret Service members apprehended the gunman before he ever entered the ballroom of the Washington Hilton, where the event was being held. White House Correspondents' Dinner, Redux: New Venue, Fewer Guests And A Presidential SpeechThree months after a gunman upended the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, guests at the rescheduled event arrived Friday to markedly tighter security, a much smaller guest list, a more relaxed dress code — and expectations of a confrontational presidential speech teased by his press secretary as “unifying yet vicious.”The rescheduled dinner was taking place in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, a smaller venue that held only about 700 people. Guests entered via a single entrance, through two ID checks and past a detection dog, armed officers and security guards. There was no red carpet and no separate cocktail receptions preceding the dinner.Read more from The Associated Press.‘Credible Threat’ Led To Trump Airplane Switcheroo At NATO Summit: NYTA “credible threat” from Iranian proxies against President Donald Trump forced him to switch planes earlier this month when leaving the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, according to the New York Times.The report debunks Trump’s preposterous claim to have decided to fly on the plane “for old time’s sake,” while leaving his $400 million Qatari aircraft at the U.K.’s Royal Air Force Mildenhall “to honor our brave men and women of the Military” because “everybody is so excited.”Asked at the time why he wasn’t flying on the jet, Trump didn’t answer directly and instead brought up the possibility of Iran assassinating him.Despite having spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars upgrading the aircraft for presidential use — the exact figure is classified, but the Air Force said it was less than $400 million —the new jet lacks fundamental security features like in-flight refueling, and likely other features, as well.The White House has since taken the Qatari airplane out of service for more upgrades, which it termed “planemaxxing” this week in a cringe-inducing social media post.Trump Administration Admits It Canceled Grants To Blue States That Didn't Vote For TrumpPresident Donald Trump’s administration admitted in a recent court filing that it had canceled grants to blue states that Trump lost in the 2024 presidential election.In court documents surfaced Friday by The New York Times, federal officials admitted that energy grants were canceled “based solely” on political reasoning.“With one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and has two Democratic-caucusing senators,” a lawyer for the Energy Department said in a court filing earlier this month.Read more at The New York Times.Trump Caught Off Guard By Question About America’s Explosive Diarrhea OutbreakPresident Donald Trump seemed unaware Friday of the outbreak of cyclosporiasis that’s responsible for a spike in explosive diarrhea across the country since late June.“I don’t know. I haven’t thought of that. That’s the first time I’ve been asked that question,” Trump told Fox News’ Peter Doocy in response to a question on when it will be safe to eat shredded lettuce, one of the suspected origins of the illness. “That’s a very interesting question from you,” Trump continued, looking around the room at the other reporters. “I didn’t think you’d ask that kind of a question. Nobody wants to ask that question. Well, that’s exciting.”Given Trump’s response, Doocy added context: “Well, there’s this food coming in, I guess from Mexico, it’s tainted, it’s making a lot of people sick.”Upon hearing “Mexico,” Trump suggested (perhaps jokingly) that the U.S. solve the problem with “a major tariff” on the country.Paramount Agrees To Push Warner Bros. Deal Until Next Summer While Lawsuit Plays OutParamount on Friday agreed to stall its acquisition of Warner Bros. until next summer while a judge considers a lawsuit filed by a California-led coalition of 12 state attorneys general suing to stop the merger.The company said in fillings it had reached an agreement with the states and would not move forward with the deal before the court makes a ruling or until June 1, 2027.The Writers Guild of America filed a similar lawsuit aimed at blocking the merger, alleging it would harm competition in the entertainment industry, resulting in fewer films and TV shows.The $110 billion deal would bring together two of the biggest Hollywood studios, which oversee streaming platforms HBO Max and Paramount+ as well as networks CNN and CBS.Trump Orders Signs Outside Smithsonian Museum To Dispute America’s HistoryAn executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Friday requires signs to be erected outside of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington that will challenge and dispute the institution’s work.The signs will inform visitors of the findings of a recent 162-page report, released by the White House, that accuses the Smithsonian Institution of working to “divide, dispirit, and discourage” American citizens through its educational programs, research and museums.“President Trump is committed to ensuring that American history is celebrated accurately, fairly, and with pride—honoring the remarkable progress, liberty, and ingenuity that define our great Nation,” the White House said while announcing the order’s signage.The signs, or exhibits, are described as temporary and meant “to ensure America’s Founders are honored during its 250th year.” A deadline for their erection was not included in the order.See All Updates