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David J. Rush, a former CIA officer who was arrested in May for stealing millions of dollars in gold bars and $2 million cash, allegedly set up a fake operation in order to convince a colleague to transfer the money to him. Photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo

June 6 (UPI) — A former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was caught with $40 million in gold bars allegedly created a fake intelligence program in order to steal the money.

David J. Rush was arrested in May and charged with theft of public funds after he lied to the agency about his military history, education and pilot license, and was then accused of stealing the gold bars and $2 million in cash that was found in his home.

U.S. officials have now said that Rush created a fake intelligence operation, or “special access program,” related to the “continuity of government operations” that he used to convince another agent to transfer the money to his operation, The New York Times and The Washington Post reported.

“He made up a contract,” one of the officials told The Post.

Rush allegedly read in two CIA colleagues on the fraudulent operation, which he claimed was related to keeping the government running in the event of a catastrophic event, such as destructive weather or a military attack.

It is not clear how the former officer was able to create a secret program and obtain the funds without involving superiors in the agency, but he managed to convince one of the colleagues to purchase the gold and transfer it to him.

The fact that Rush managed to apply to and was hired by the CIA using false credentials has raised questions about the agency’s background checks and security when hiring, the Times and the Post reported.

Additionally, several former U.S. officials question how somebody could be hired and then assigned to a significantly sensitive intelligence-gathering program that is classified.

Rush was caught and charged after the agency conducted a review of expenses and could not locate the gold or cash he had requested.

I WORK in travel, which basically means I spend most of my life looking at holiday prices, booking trends, destinations and deals.

Now and then, a destination suddenly appears on my radar where I think: “this place is about to have a BIG moment”.

Montenegro is that place for me right now.

A few years ago, hardly anyone in Britain was talking about it.

Now, searches for Montenegro holidays are up more than 120 per cent year-on-year, while bookings have surged by more than a whopping 500 per cent.

And after looking at the prices people are paying compared to what they’re actually getting, I completely understand why.

Because Montenegro feels like somebody merged Scandinavia and the Mediterranean, then forgot to charge Monaco prices for it – and the value genuinely shocked me.

Holiday prices in general have crept up massively over the last few years, with the average beach holiday now sitting close to £2,000 in 2026.

Montenegro, though, is still coming in around 10 per cent cheaper than that, despite looking far more premium than many destinations which charge significantly more.

I found a five-night all-inclusive stay at the 4* Carine Hotel Kumbor Superior in Herceg Novi for £288pp in October 2026.

Beachfront hotel, direct flights from Gatwick, strong reviews,
mountains dropping into the sea behind the hotel – the sort of place most people would assume costs a fortune.

Then I compared it to similar all-inclusive beachfront hotels elsewhere in Europe.

A comparable 4* all-inclusive stay at Hotel Osmine on Croatia’s Dubrovnik Riviera was coming in at £530pp for similar dates.

In Turkey, the 4* Justiniano Club Alanya was £440pp.

Portugal’s AP Adriana Beach Resort came in around £395pp, while Greece’s Tsilivi Beach Hotel sat at roughly £360pp.

And that’s the bit people haven’t really clocked yet.

Montenegro is still priced closer to budget beach destinations, despite visually feeling far closer to luxury resorts in Croatia, northern Italy or the French Riviera.

This is the easiest way I can describe Montenegro to people who’ve never been: imagine Norway, but warm.

You’ve got dramatic fjord-like bays where mountains crash straight into bright blue sea, but then layered into that are old Venetian towns, beach clubs, marinas and proper Mediterranean weather.

The Bay of Kotor, in particular, looks almost fake in places. One minute you’re driving around scenery that feels Scandinavian, the next you’re sitting eating seafood by a marina in 25-degree sunshine.

It doesn’t feel like your standard “fly and flop” beach holiday. It feels more cinematic than that.

The question I always get asked when I mention Montenegro is whether it’s easy for British tourists.

Honestly, that’s probably one of its biggest strengths.

Whenever I read reviews or speak to people who’ve been recently, the same phrases keep coming up: relaxed, calm, safe, welcoming.

And I think that matters more than ever now.

Montenegro consistently ranks as a very safe destination for tourists, and the resorts themselves feel noticeably more laid-back than some of the bigger mainstream Mediterranean hotspots.

Places like Kotor, Tivat and Herceg Novi feel more like relaxed marina towns than loud tourist machines.

You can walk around at night, eat outside by the waterfront, wander through old towns, and it all just feels very smooth and stress-free.

This is another reason I think bookings are suddenly climbing.

Montenegro stays properly warm far longer than many people realise.

If you travel in May, June or October, you can still comfortably get low-to-mid 20s temperatures while paying a fraction of peak summer prices.

That’s where the value becomes almost ridiculous.

The October deal I found at the Carine Hotel Kumbor Superior for £335pp is a perfect example of that.

In peak August, you’d expect to pay far more for that sort of scenery and hotel quality elsewhere in Europe.

But interestingly, the value isn’t just limited to shoulder season either.

I also compared two similar July deals in peak summer.

In Montenegro, I found a five-night stay at the 4* Hotel Rivijera in Petrovac for £395pp with flights and breakfast included.

Meanwhile, a comparable 4* stay at the AluaSun Costa Park in Torremolinos, Spain’s Costa del Sol, came in slightly higher at £410pp. And that’s quite telling.

Because Spain is traditionally seen as the “cheap and easy” summer holiday option for Brits.

Montenegro still somehow manages to compete with it on price, despite feeling far more undiscovered and dramatically different visually.

That long season is a huge advantage.

Whether you travel in peak July or as late as October, Montenegro seems to consistently sit in this sweet spot where the weather still feels premium, but the prices haven’t completely lost their minds yet.

It’s basically cheaper sunshine.

A lot of destinations only really work for one type of traveller. Montenegro somehow does several things at once.

You can do long weekends wandering around Kotor’s old town. You can stay in Budva if you want beaches, bars and more going on.

You can head to Becici for quieter beachfront hotels and a slower pace.

Or you can go full luxury around Porto Montenegro in Tivat, where the
Marina genuinely feels like a mini Monaco at times.

That flexibility is a huge reason I think it’s growing so quickly. It works whether you’re a couple looking for scenery, a family wanting an easy beach holiday, or someone who normally does city breaks but fancies adding sunshine into the mix.

This is the big opportunity with Montenegro right now.

It’s not overrun. It’s not absurdly expensive. It hasn’t quite hit that point where every single person you know has already been there three times.

But the growth numbers suggest that it probably won’t last forever. You can already see it happening in the data.

Searches are climbing rapidly. Bookings are exploding.

More Brits are starting to realise they can get this sort of scenery, weather and hotel quality without paying Croatia or Italy prices.

And yet somehow, deals still keep appearing that make absolutely no sense for how premium Montenegro feels.

I found a five-night stay at the highly rated D&D Apartments Tivat in Tivat for £270pp in late September 2026 with direct flights from Luton included.

Tivat is home to Porto Montenegro – the luxury marina development that genuinely feels closer to Monaco than somewhere people still think of as an “undiscovered” Balkan destination.

That’s why Montenegro feels so unusual right now. You keep finding prices that belong to mainstream beach destinations, attached to places that look considerably more expensive.

Honestly, Montenegro feels exactly like Croatia did about five years ago – before everyone caught on and the prices started creeping up.

If I were booking Montenegro tomorrow, there are probably three places I’d look at first — and interestingly, they all offer completely different types of holiday.

Budva is probably the easiest all-rounder. It’s got the broadest appeal overall – beaches, bars, restaurants, beach clubs and enough going on that you could happily spend a full week there without getting bored.

It’s probably the closest Montenegro gets to a classic Mediterranean
beach holiday destination, just with far more dramatic scenery around it.

I found a five-night stay at the 4* Hotel Moskva in Budva for £255pp in October 2026 with flights and breakfast included, which feels absurdly cheap for somewhere that looks this polished.

Then there’s Kotor, which is probably the most visually impressive place in the country.

This is the “wow” one. Think medieval old towns, mountains dropping into the bay and scenery that makes you stop every five minutes to take another photo.

For Kotor, I found a five-night stay at the 4* Splendido for £325pp with flights and breakfast included – again, in a setting that most people would probably assume costs significantly more.

And finally, there’s Becici, which I actually think might be the sweet spot for a lot of British travellers.

It’s calmer than Budva, has a really good beach, feels a little more premium overall and still gives you easy access to everything nearby.

I found a stay at the 4* Katamare Hotel for £280pp in October with flights and breakfast included, which feels like exactly the kind of deal people will look back on in a few years and wish they’d booked sooner.

Honestly, you can’t really go wrong. It just depends on whether you want beach holiday in Montenegro, a luxury Montenegro or a wow-factor Montenegro.

But whatever your choice, I completely get why more Brits are suddenly choosing it for 2026.

PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court has denied a prosecutor’s appeal of an order that the state’s fake elector case against President Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and others over the 2020 presidential election be sent back to a grand jury.

The decision marks another setback for Democratic Atty. Gen. Kris Mayes as she struggles to push the sprawling case through the courts. Mayes’ office said it will again present the case in its entirety to a grand jury rather than end the prosecution.

The ruling came after similar cases in Michigan and Georgia were dismissed by the courts and a special prosecutor dropped a federal case in late 2024 that charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Cases related to the fake elector scheme remain in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin.

A lower-court judge in Phoenix concluded in May that the case’s first grand jury hadn’t been shown the text of the Electoral Count Act, a 19th century law that governs the certification of presidential contests and was invoked by those charged in defending themselves.

Defense lawyers argued the law allowed for multiple slates of electors to be submitted to Congress in case the results were disputed, though it was amended in 2022 to specify that a state could put forward only one slate of electors and that it was the governor who would sign off.

There has been no movement in the Arizona case at the trial court level since mid-May.

Former President Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020 by 10,457 votes.

Billeaud writes for the Associated Press.

A NOUGHTIES pop star has hinted he’s quitting fame after 25 years in the spotlight as furiously ranted online.

The 42-year-old took to his Instagram to share some hard truths about the industry and told how he’d rather live a simpler live.

Lee Ryan, a star of the 90s boyband Blue, explained that he’s “been through hell and back” and said he now “hates the public eye.”

The singer found fame in the early 2000s after the band achieved massive success with their debut album All Rise in 2001.

Blue, who have three UK Number 1 Platinum-selling albums, are still going strong, with tours lined up for the rest of this year and next.

Alongside Antony Costa, Duncan James and Simon Webbe, Lee has been taking to the stage but it seems he’s not entirely happy.

He posted a picture of himself singing at a concert on Instagram and captioned it with the statement: “As much as I love my career I’ve had for 25 years singing in Blue, sometimes I just want to go home to be a husband and father to my baby’s.

“There’s no place I feel more at peace than with them. This industry sucks you in and spits you out the other end… I’ve been through hell and back in the public eye and I actually hate it now.”

Lee continued: “I don’t like the fame part of this job anymore, it’s fake and quite toxic. People use you and abuse you and use your success as a weapon.”

“Don’t get me wrong I love singing and being creative making music and seeing the fans at shows,” said Lee.

“The rest I could leave behind and never step foot into that space again happily… I have no interest in the industry bs anymore…. Rather be home being a dad and a husband x”

Fans took to the comments to support Lee while some felt annoyed that they had brought tickets and could see he “didn’t want to do it anymore.”

One fan wrote: “I love blue, I still do. But at the concert I feel like I could see that you don’t really want it anymore. It‘s sad because people pay money to see the absolute best of you…”

Another fan said: “Thank you for carrying on and bless us with your beautiful voice. There is no place like home and I am sure your family is forever proud of you.”

A third fan added: “You would be missed, your voice, stage presence and banter is truly in a small minority BUT you have to do what’s best for you.”

Lee’s wife Verity also rushed to support her man. She said: “You get to do both!!! Be a pop star and come back to reality and live on the farm in the sunshine!!! We love you Mr, keep going nearly home time xxx”

The couple, who married in Gibraltar in 2022, share four children together.

Blue took a hiatus in 2004 but later reformed with the original bandmembers in 2011.

NewsFeed

In the battle of propaganda, fake videos and images of female victims of Iran’s government are going viral, with even the US president sharing them. Al Jazeera’s Soraya Lennie explains how Iranian women, real or fake, are often used to sell foreign intervention.