The families of those lost in the 9/11 tragedy are calling for the exclusion of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani from the upcoming 25th anniversary ceremonies at Ground Zero. They have accused him of being an apologist for Islamic terrorism, asserting that his attendance would dishonor the memory of the nearly 3,000 victims who perished.

“Our opposition stems from his public record and his failure to adequately acknowledge the day’s horrors,” said Giovanni Galante, who lost his 29-year-old wife, Grace Catherine Galante, to al-Qaeda’s attacks. “He has been associated with, supported, or employed those who have minimized 9/11, defended terrorists, or even suggested that America deserved these attacks.”

In response, Galante, now 55, has helped lead a petition drive that has gathered more than 1,100 signatures within just over a week. Among these signatories are at least 300 relatives of the victims.

“This day holds profound significance for us,” expressed Galante, a Brooklyn-born real estate agent who resides in Florida.

“The commemoration is sacred, not a forum for political expressions, especially from those linked to such controversial viewpoints. His attendance would be deeply distressing and wholly inappropriate, akin to an uninvited guest at a deeply personal gathering.”

Galante and other petition organizers hope to gather enough signatures to convince local lawmakers and the ceremony’s organizers, the nonprofit 9/11 Memorial & Museum, to keep Mamdani away from the silver-anniversary ceremony planned for the former Twin Towers site in Lower Manhattan.

The petition posted on Change.org cites an array of concerns about Mamdani, who is the city’s first Muslim mayor and has promoted his religion since taking office in January. They include:

• Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the “globalize the intifada” rallying cry for violence against Jewish people.

• Mamdani defending al-Qaeda fiend Anwar al-Awlaki — and blaming America for turning the prostitution-loving cleric into a terrorist, according to some of his 2015 social media posts that resurfaced last year. Al-Awlaki became a prominent imam at mosques in San Diego and Virginia, eventually interacting with three of the heinous 9/11 hijackers there, U.S. officials have said.

“Given these concerns, we respectfully ask that the organizers carefully consider whether Mr. Mamdani’s participation would align with the intention of the ceremony and the expectations of the families most directly affected by the tragedy,” the petition says.

“The 25th anniversary should remain centered on remembrance, unity, and an unambiguous rejection of the violence and extremism that defined that day.”

Organizer Cheri Sparacio, whose 35-year-old husband Thomas was killed on 9/11, quipped there are  “so many other examples” why it would be “disrespectful” for Mamdani to attend the ceremony that “we couldn’t fit them on the list.”

They include Mamdani’s longtime association with vile left-wing influencer Hasan Piker, who once said “America deserved” the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, and Mamdani’s outlandish claim that he and other fellow Muslims were also victims of 9/11 because it supposedly triggered a horrible wave of “Islamophobia,” added Sparacio, of Staten Island.

Monica Iken-Murphy, whose 37-year-old husband Michael Iken was killed on 9/11 and was a leading advocate in the creation of 9/11 Memorial & Museum, said she signed the petition but insisted it’s not about Mamdani’s politics.

Only politicians involved in the healing “process from the start” — such as ex-NYC Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani, former U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and longtime 9/11 family advocate and City Council Speaker Julie Menin — should join 9/11 family members in attending “this pivotal 25th anniversary ceremony,” she said.

“I don’t want families to feel uncomfortable,” said Iken-Murphy, also a founding trustee on the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s board. “Others can come a different day, but let the families have their time.”

When asked about the petition drive, Julie Wood, a spokesperson for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, said the nonprofit has “intentionally worked to keep the commemoration free of politics because remembering those we lost on 9/11 should never be a partisan issue.”

“Government officials from across the political spectrum, including every sitting president, governor, and mayor since 9/11, have attended the ceremony simply to bear witness — they do not deliver remarks and are asked to remain in a designated area,” Wood said.

The mayor’s office did not return messages.

Galante and other organizers said they plan to contact the NYC Council for help in their ban-Mamdani crusade.

Menin did not return a message seeking comment, but Queens Councilwoman Joann Ariola told The Post she’s ready to assist.

“This is a mayor who has endorsed candidates and has been endorsed by individuals who openly said that ‘America deserved 9/11,’ so I completely understand why families of those who lost loved ones would not want him there,” she said.

In a heartfelt moment on Friday, Barack Obama reached out to Caitlin Clark, offering her sincere advice to not let the ‘nonsense’ surrounding her WNBA journey bring her down.

The occasion for Obama’s visit was the gathering of the WNBA’s finest players as they prepared for their All-Star game in Chicago, set for Saturday night.

Upon seeing Clark, the Indiana Fever standout, Obama made a special effort to approach her directly, imparting a thoughtful message.

Now in her third year as a pro, Clark has once again found herself embroiled in relentless controversy, admitting on Friday that it has taken an emotional toll on her.

Despite the potential of stirring the political left, Obama’s gesture appeared to defend Clark, offering her vital encouragement amidst ongoing criticism from competitors.

As he saw her, Obama said: ‘Oh, hey! Caitlin! How are you? Really nice to meet you. You’re great. You’re fantastic. Don’t let all this nonsense get you down.’

Clark interjected and replied: ‘It’s crazy, yeah. I appreciate it.’

Obama then continued: ‘You know, I always say one of the things that was luckiest for me was I didn’t get famous until I was like 45. So I was an old a** man.

‘I mean, you’re my daughters’ age. They’ve not had much, you know, immersion in nonsense. So don’t lose that joy. The game’s like the game and you’re a hooper.’

‘I try, sometimes,’ Clark responded.

‘No, you’re always hooping! And you’re on a nice little run right now,’ Obama concluded.

Clark then asked if Obama would mind getting a picture with her and he happily agreed before they posed for the cameras together.

Addressing her encounter with Obama later on, Clark said: ‘He complimented me for how I handle everything obviously with everything going on… he reminded me “when I got famous in my 40s I didn’t have to do it in my 20s”… it’s definitely a moment I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life.’

It comes after Clark admitted she is ’emotionally exhausted’ and drained by the non-stop controversy surrounding her, opening up in a candid interview about the constant off-court noise and on-court hostility.

The Fever guard confessed that the relentless media chatter and physical altercations leave her shoulders tense every time she steps out of the locker room.

‘When I walk out of the locker room, I shouldn’t be not fearful of what the conversation is gonna be… it’s emotionally exhausting. It’s draining,’ Clark confessed.

‘It makes your shoulders tense. Because, you know, people don’t wanna talk about the basketball. They just wanna stir it up and make something else,’ she told SportsCenter.

Addressing the recent physical clash with Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas, who delivered a strike to Clark’s throat during a heated sequence, the 24-year-old gave a brutally honest assessment of the foul.

‘It seems like there’s always a moment like that in every season that I’ve played so far,’ Clark admitted. ‘And I think for myself, like I just try to navigate it the best I can. It gets exhausting. It gets frustrating.’

Beyond the physical fouls on the hardwood, the former No. 1 overall pick took direct aim at reporters and bloggers who fabricate false narratives about her character without taking the time to know her.

‘I think there’s just like a false characterization of who I am sometimes,’ Clark said. 

‘And I get it like as a reporter or as a blogger, like you can write an opinion piece and that’s your job and whatever. But at the same time, like you don’t know me. Like we’ve never had a conversation.’

While acknowledging the media has a job to perform, Clark urged critics to stop attacking her personal character when they have no genuine insight into who she is behind closed doors.

‘I get people have a job to do. But at the same time, like don’t make accusations about my character and who I am when you don’t know me,’ she urged. 

‘I understand this is your job and this is your profession, and this is what you get to do. And basketball is my profession, what I get to do.’

Concluding with an emotional defense of her love for the game, Clark made it clear that no amount of outside drama will ruin her childhood dream of competing at the highest level.

‘The reason I play it is when I step in between the lines, I love it. And that’s what’s so fun about it for me is like, I get to compete,’ Clark declared. ‘This was always my dream. And nobody should ever try to take that away from me.’

Eva Benefield’s heart sank when her phone rang with a call from her Uncle Dave bearing “some really bad news.” Her thoughts immediately went to one person.

“She killed him, didn’t she?” Eva asked, already suspecting the worst. Her unsettling intuition was confirmed when her uncle revealed that her father, Doug Benefield, had been fatally shot.

Eva’s instinctive suspicion fell on her stepmother, Ashley Benefield, once a celebrated ballerina and now at the center of a tragic family drama.

“By then, I was fully aware of the myriad allegations she had leveled against my dad,” Eva shared with News Media. Her TikTok account bears witness to her father’s story, chronicling the tragic series of events.

“There was something about her that made her obsessed with the idea that my dad was not a good person,” she said. “She had called the cops multiple times on my dad. She had called CPS on my dad. I knew there was no boundary and no limit — she was going to do anything she could to frame my dad in a negative light. When my uncle said, ‘Your dad’s been shot,’ who else was he spending time with in Florida? I just knew.”

In 2024, Ashley was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter in the 2020 shooting death of her estranged husband. Now, in her memoir, “Ghost Girl: Surviving the Black Swan Murder,” Benefield is reflecting on her father’s death, their relationship and the years leading up to the fatal shooting.

Benefield was still in high school when her mother, Renee Benefield, died from a heart condition. As the family reeled from the loss, Doug made his daughter his top priority.

Benefield described her father as gentle, patient and endlessly curious — an artist who was always learning something new.

“Those nine months between my mom passing away and my dad marrying Ashley were probably some of the best memories I have with my dad,” she said.

“We were close. I was always following his lead. He would have all of these projects in the garage, and I would just sit with him, watch him. Those nine months when it was just the two of us, we were really leaning on each other. Anything I needed, he was there for me.”

More than a year before he was killed, Doug nearly walked away from his second marriage, which was plagued with problems.

“‘That’s it. I’m done. I’ve tried everything to show her that I’m a good guy, that I love her, and she just won’t believe me. She keeps making these allegations against me,'” Benefield recalled him saying.

“He was going to pack up and leave,” she said. “He was going to come back to Charleston.”

Instead, Benefield urged her father to stay one more day so her younger sister, Emerson, could celebrate Easter with him.

“I told him, ‘She’s at the age where she’s going to remember that,'” Benefield said. “You need to stay and be with her, and then you can come to Charleston tomorrow. He was like, ‘You’re right. We’ll open Easter baskets. I’ll be back in Charleston tomorrow.’”

“And that was it,” she continued. “I think that was the one time I saw him think about leaving and say he was going to do it, and then he didn’t.”

Looking back, Benefield can’t help but wonder if that decision changed everything.

“I think he stayed in Florida for one too many days after that,” she said.

Within a year after losing his first wife, Doug, 54, married Ashley Byers — later Ashley Benefield — a 24-year-old former swimsuit model, just 13 days after they met.

“I had just an off-putting feeling,” Benefield said. “Within three days, my dad went from having no love life since my late mother died to being married to a 24-year-old. I thought they were dating casually, not married. It was the day after meeting her that I learned they were married.”

Benefield said she quickly realized Ashley was “not the sweet girl she marketed herself to be.” In “Ghost Girl,” she described how her home became increasingly hostile after Ashley moved in.

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Benefield alleged her stepmother began isolating her from her father, blaming her for household conflicts, reading her private journal, publicly embarrassing her and seeking to push her out of the family dynamic.

“I really wanted her to like me,” Benefield wrote. “But I could tell she did not like me at all, and it wasn’t even personal. I was just in the way.”

“There were moments where I felt it was inappropriate,” Benefield told News Media. “I’d come home from school, and she would be sitting in a bra and underwear on the kitchen counter, waiting for my dad to get home. She took me to the grocery store one time and showed me she had a gun in her bra. She started a screaming match between us. My dad wasn’t yelling back, but she was yelling at my dad over little things I did that upset her.”

Benefield said Ashley also attempted to erase her late mother.

“She came in and got rid of everything that reminded me of my mom in my room,” Benefield said. “There were pictures on the walls of my mom and me. There was a letter from my mom. She took down everything. It was all gone.

“She was asking my dad to say that my mom meant nothing to him. That stung because I knew that wasn’t true, but she needed to hear that. She needed to see that the house was rid of everything that reminded him of my mom. She caused a lot of arguments, and they were over little things. She was driving a wedge between my dad and me.”

In 2017, Ashley launched the American National Ballet, a Charleston-based dance company. Doug threw himself into the venture. When the company collapsed later that year, Ashley returned to Florida while pregnant with Emerson.

Doug increasingly spent his time in Florida trying to repair his relationship with Ashley and be part of Emerson’s life. Benefield stayed behind in Charleston to finish high school, later writing that she wanted to distance herself from the turmoil surrounding her father.

“At a certain point, I asked my dad to leave me out of their relationship,” Benefield said. “I knew it wasn’t going to get better. I just felt, ‘I’ll turn 18, and I can move out if she’s still around.’ That was my plan. But my dad thought things would get better. She would try to convince him that things were getting better, and he felt, ‘We’re finally figuring our issues out.’ Then she would accuse him of all these false allegations. But I do think he felt things would turn around.”

“It never got better,” Benefield said.

In September 2020, Doug was killed at the Lakewood Ranch, Florida, home where Ashley was staying with her mother. The shooting came as the estranged couple was embroiled in a contentious custody dispute over their daughter. Ashley was arrested in November of that year.

Ashley claimed she shot and killed her estranged husband, 58, in self-defense, arguing she opened fire on the Navy veteran after ordering him out of her house and alleging he refused to comply and hit her in the face.

“I thought he was going to kill me,” Ashley testified during the trial. Investigators said she showed no visible signs of physical abuse after the shooting.

Ashley accused Doug of psychologically abusing her, but prosecutors argued the allegations were unsupported by the evidence. They noted she made the allegations in an effort to gain sole custody of their daughter.

Benefield would later come face-to-face with Ashley in court.

“It was a weird feeling, knowing this was my dad’s killer,” Benefield said. “When I saw her, I felt, ‘My dad is really dead. This is the girl who killed him.’ I got angry. But I was there to get justice. I needed to show her that I’m strong and she’s not going to get away with this.”

During her victim impact statement, Benefield said, “What hurts me the most is not the thought of not having my dad anymore because I will always have him around in spirit. … What breaks my heart the most is thinking about how he found you at such a vulnerable part of his life.”

Ashley was charged with second-degree murder but was convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter after nearly seven hours of deliberations. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Today, Benefield said she’s focused on moving forward while carrying the lessons her father left behind.

“I wish he could have gotten out of that situation,” she said. “But I would want him to know that his daughter turned out OK.”

It’s the ultimate measure, one that holds both tremendous risk and strategic intent.

In a bold move that could redefine military intervention, American Special Operations forces stand poised to execute what is being touted as one of the most technologically advanced operations in military history. Their mission: to confiscate Iran’s enriched uranium from some of the nation’s most robustly defended nuclear facilities.

“Regrettably, it seems like the most probable solution to dismantling Iran’s existing nuclear capabilities will involve military action, especially since diplomatic talks have hit a standstill,” remarked Joseph Rodgers, who serves as the deputy director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

This mission, layered with intricate challenges, would see thousands of boots on the ground, tasked with breaching Iran’s nuclear strongholds. From dodging boobytraps to harnessing the skill of construction teams, and maintaining a robust defensive perimeter, the operation’s complexity was disclosed by a source deeply ingrained in military strategy to The Post on Friday.

At the heart of this daring endeavor, an elite group of special operatives would undertake the perilous task of extracting the nuclear materials—a process described as “extremely hazardous” by insiders.

“I think this would be one of the most, if not the most, sophisticated operations in military history,” said Rodgers.

“This would be a logistically heavy and difficult operation in a contested environment. Iran’s military is pretty destroyed, but they’re still more sophisticated than the Cubans that were guarding Maduro.”

The group of special operators could include SEAL Team 6’s Silver Squadron, the 2nd Ranger Battalion, and the Army’s 21st Ordnance Company, according to a report from plugged-in independent outlet The High Side.

The 21st Ordnance Company would be responsible for handling and transporting the whatever quantity of enriched uranium out of facilities from the mostly destroyed Fordo facility and the severely damaged Isfahan facility, according to the report.

The IAEA reported in 2025 that Iran had upwards of 20,000 pounds of enriched uranium.

“You need to create a secure perimeter around all of the sites that you’re trying to go in and grab the material from. That would require ground forces to secure a perimeter and then create a secure convoy route to the airstrip,” said Rodgers.

US military crews would have to dig out the destroyed entrances of the sites while holding off attacks from the Iranian military.

“So how long can you sustain that and still be able to exfiltrate all of your forces?” said Richard Goldberg, who served as director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction for the White House National Security Council in the first Trump administration.

The mission would further require complete control of a corridor of airspace that would allow the military to fly to a secure location.

Iran has been preparing for an attack on the Isfahan facility.

“We have seen reports of Iran hardening the facility at Isfahan, booby traps being laid, and potentially perimeter forces being stationed,” said Goldberg.

“There is no element of surprise at the moment. The targets are fixed. We know where they are. The Iranians know where they are.”

Iran has placed mines and explosives in the tunnels of the Isfahan facility in anticipation of a raid on the facility, according to a CNN report last month.

Pickaxe Mountain has emerged as a new target after it was reported that Iran transported hundreds of nuclear centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear enrichment location in the last month.

“We don’t know how many centrifuges are down there. Would they be looking to actually disassemble, destroy, bring them out? I mean, more likely, if you had to do a special operations mission inside Pickaxe Mountain the reason you would do that is you don’t think you can collapse the facility by airstrike,” Goldberg said.

The determination on whether airstrikes would be sufficient relies on US intelligence community knowledge on the schematics and weak points of the building — much like the bunker busters which targeted the Achille’s heel airshaft of the heavily fortified Fordo, according to Goldberg.

“That’s a destroy mission,” said Goldberg. “If you were to try to get into the facility, you’d be seeking to collapse the facility.”

Unlike the Isfahan and Fordo, the US could potentially see quick success in Pickaxe.

“Pickaxe Mountain, potentially, could be like the Maduro raid,” he said of the operation that arrested the Venezuelan ex-dictator Nicolas Maduro in the presidential compound of capital city Caracas.

“Because you are infiltrating, you’re setting explosives, and you’re getting out,” said Goldberg.

Donald Trump’s younger son is now facing a request to appear before Congress, following accusations of his connections with controversial ‘manosphere’ figures Andrew and Tristan Tate, who were taken into custody last week.

The Tate brothers, embroiled in serious allegations such as multiple counts of rape and sex trafficking, found themselves behind bars on Saturday, July 18. Their arrest came in the wake of an extradition demand from the UK.

Twenty-year-old Barron Trump has been summoned by a Democratic member of the House to provide testimony to the House Oversight Committee. The purpose is to determine his awareness or potential involvement in the criminal activities and ongoing investigation centered around Andrew and Tristan Tate.

Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari made public a letter addressed to the Committee Chairman via a Thursday post on X. In it, she highlighted, “Investigative sources have uncovered significant and frequent communications between Andrew Tate and Barron Trump, linking the President’s son to the brothers’ network of influential political personalities within the President’s inner circle.”

She further insisted, “The Committee is obligated to explore if clandestine dialogues between the Tate brothers, presidential advisors, and First Family members like Barron Trump have swayed official stances or policies related to the criminal proceedings and investigations against the brothers or international cooperation on law enforcement.”

Andrew and Tristan Tate were dramatically arrested by US Marshals in Miami last weekend after the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) unveiled dozens of new charges against them.

The pending charges in the UK accuse Andrew, 39, and Tristan, 37, of abusing women between July 2010 and August 2017, the CPS said.

Andrew faces seven further counts of rape, three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and 19 additional charges for offences relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.

Tristan is being charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of rape and three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation. 

The brothers have denied any wrongdoing. 

Congresswoman Ansari called for the Committee to issue immediate subpoenas for the state records, White House & Agency logs, and, finally, Barron Trump. 

She added that the Committee ‘must learn from Barron Trump about his knowledge of the Tate brothers’ crimes, if he had any involvement whatsoever, and if he communicated with members of his father’s administration or the President himself regarding their legal proceedings’.   

The Tates, who are of dual British and American nationality, are vocal Trump supporters who have flaunted their supposed ties to the First Family – especially college student Barron, 20.

Justin Waller, an entrepreneur so close to the brothers that he describes himself as their ‘third brother,’ was among a cadre of MAGA loyalists who visited Mar-a-Lago in the spring of 2024 to dine with the then-teenager.

‘Barron walks, talks, moves and thinks in a way that resembles his father,’ Waller told the Daily Mail afterwards. ‘It is quite clear that he is not confused about what’s going on in the world, nor the rooms he finds himself in.’

The pair were said to have struck up such a close rapport that Waller became a ‘big brother’ figure to the president’s 6ft 9in son, dispensing dating advice and introducing him to the tailor who made the suit for his father’s second inauguration, according to Waller.

During the fitting, Barron spoke directly to Andrew Tate over Zoom, Waller told the New York Times.

The pair chatted again after the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to Andrew Tate, who boasted to a British filmmaker: ‘I’m very close with the Trump family.’

That same summer Donald Trump Jr and Andrew Tate appeared together on a livestream to promote a MAGA meme coin.

‘You’ve got people attacking you as far as I’m concerned,’ Don Jr said. ‘They just want to silence you.’ 

Press Secretary for the White House, Karoline Leavitt, said the Tate brothers’ extradition would not be blocked, suggesting the influencers would not be getting any help from the White House. 

The Tates have amassed a global following of fans, particularly young men and boys captivated by their baller lifestyle and unabashed chauvinism.

But they now face the grim prospect of spending months locked up in a federal jail while they fight extradition.

The brothers are also facing legal proceedings in Romania, where they have a home.

It’s understood the UK extradition request will take precedence and the pair will be flown to London to face trial if it succeeds.

The brothers deny all the charges they face worldwide.

They were first arrested in Romania in December 2022 after prosecutors accused them of running a criminal enterprise that lured women to the Eastern European country for sexual exploitation.

British prosecutors filed their own charges against the brothers in May 2025, including rape, actual bodily harm and human trafficking.

The Tates flew from Romania to Florida in February 2025 after authorities lifted their travel ban, a reversal that followed reported pressure from Trump administration figures.

Trump told reporters, however, that he knew ‘nothing about it.’

ProPublica later reported that a White House official intervened to have federal agents return electronic devices seized from the brothers when they landed in Florida.