5 Big News Stories Overnight - Friday, July 3, 2026

‘Truly international’ network of drug-facilitated rape uncovered by UK crime agency

The Guardian reports:

Criminal investigators in the UK say they have uncovered a “truly international network” of organised drug-facilitated sexual assault in which victims are sedated before being raped and sexually assaulted.

The National Crime Agency [NCA] has said online networks, “many as yet unidentified by law enforcement”, were allowing offenders to arrange to rape and abuse victims or arrange for sexual assaults to be filmed.

In many cases, these crimes were being perpetrated by those who “utilise the existence of committed, trusting and often long-term relationships to perpetrate and facilitate offending”, the agency said, giving the example of the high-profile Gisèle Pelicot case in France.

Since it began investigating an online forum in October last year, the NCA has identified more than 270 individuals linked to that forum and its successors.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Urges 40 Countries to Transfer Patriot Missiles

The Kyiv Post reports:

Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has written to nearly 40 partner countries, urging them to immediately transfer Patriot missiles from existing stockpiles to Ukraine, in exchange for future deliveries already contracted for Kyiv.

The appeal follows what Fedorov described as one of the largest Russian attacks on Ukraine to date, in which Russian armed forces launched nearly 500 attack drones and 77 missiles, including 25 ballistic or hypersonic weapons overnight, according to his Telegram channel.

“Thanks to the professionalism of our soldiers and support from partners, we managed to intercept more than 90% of cruise missiles and 90% of Shahed-type attack drones,” Fedorov said, adding that Russia is “intensifying strikes on Ukrainian cities” as it has failed to “achieve its goals on the battlefield.”

PHOTO: Julie Rekamie, Unsplash file

Tucker Carlson to Help Start New Party

WSJ reports:

Tucker Carlson, the influential conservative media commentator, said in an interview that he planned to help start a new political party after leaving the Republican Party, but that he had no interest in running for office.

Mr. Carlson, a former close ally of President Trump who has broken with the Republican Party over the war with Iran, told the Columbia Journalism Review that he was “going to help build a third party.”

“There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country,” Mr. Carlson said in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review published Wednesday.

He outlined his plans at a moment of upheaval for both parties: The insurgent left appears ascendant in the Democratic Party as the base has grown angry over the party leadership’s stance on Israel since the war in Gaza. The Republican Party has been fractured by Mr. Trump’s handling of the war with Iran.

PHOTO: Promo photo

DR Congo Ebola outbreak tops 400 deaths as virus reaches major city

France 24 reports:

An Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo has killed more than 400 people and is still spreading, with a first case reported in the major city of Kisangani nearly 600 kilometres (370 miles) from its epicentre.

The highly infectious disease has claimed 438 lives among the 1,406 people confirmed infected -- a fatality rate of just over 31 percent -- since the outbreak was declared on May 15, the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) said in its latest report published on Thursday.

The centre of the outbreak -- whose true scale remains difficult to assess -- was in the northeastern Ituri province, where more than 83 percent of the deaths have occurred.

The province borders South Sudan and Uganda, which has reported 20 cases including two deaths.

The virus has also spread to the nearby provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.

Trump and Scallops

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

Today I am declaring a National Scallops Day to celebrate an action taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that will open up the Northern Edge of Georges Bank to Scallops Fishing, fulfilling the dream to our Great Fishermen who were so badly treated by the Obama and Biden Administrations, and by the Country of Canada. That will mean millions more pounds of beautiful Wild Scallops a year on the kitchen table of Americans, and more Jobs in Norfolk, Virginia, Cape May, New Jersey, New Bedford, Massachusetts, and essentially all parts of the East Coast. This is in addition to freeing up a massive area off the East Coast for our Great Lobster Fishermen, and others (An Environmental Monument declared by Barack Hussein Obama and Sleepy Joe Biden, that I terminated!), and a half a million square miles of the beautiful Pacific Ocean, where every country was allowed to fish except for our Great American Fishermen! I have opened up the Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, and Seas to our Fishermen, and freed them from ridiculous Environmental restrictions that allowed other countries to take advantage of the United States’ Waters under Barack Hussein Obuma, Sleepy Joe Biden, and the Dumocrats. It is my Great Honor to have done so because I am the Fishermen’s