"Any Moment Now": US Says Hamas To Free Remaining Israeli Hostages Soon

10/12/25 11:26 PM

The release of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas is imminent, US Vice President JD Vance said Sunday, while vowing that the Trump administration would apply all necessary pressure to ensure future stability in Gaza.

"Not Afraid": China Stands Firm Against Trump's 100% Tariff Threat

10/12/25 10:37 PM

China signalled Sunday that it would not back down in the face of a 100% tariff threat from President Donald Trump, urging the US to resolve differences through negotiations instead of threats.

'Don't worry about China': Trump claims 'President Xi just had a bad moment'

10/12/25 5:00 PM

Donald Trump on Sunday posted a comment about China, telling citizens not to "worry" about the country or his "highly respected" Chinese counterpart.The president took to his own social media site, Truth Social, over the weekend, where he insisted there was nothing to worry about with China, a nation which Trump recently threatened with even more tariffs in an escalating trade dispute."Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!" Trump wrote Sunday. "Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!! President DJT."See the post here.

'Dude!' Trump secretary stuns by revealing taxpayer bailout to sway Argentina election

09/24/25 4:57 PM

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent admitted that Donald Trump's administration was trying to help Argentina President Javier Milei maintain power by extending billions of loans to boost that nation's economy.The U.S. will extend a $20 billion swap line to Argentina and may purchase debt from its government to boost the political fortunes for the libertarian Milei, a close ally of Trump, Bessent and other American conservatives, the treasury secretary told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo.“I don’t think the market has lost confidence in [Milei],” Bessent said. “I think the market is looking in the rearview mirror and looking at decades — about a century — of terrible Argentinian mismanagement.”Milei is facing growing financial pressure since his party lost a key provincial election earlier this month in a landslide, just weeks ahead of Argentina's Oct. 26 midterm elections, and Bessent told Bartiromo the aid was intended as a political boost."The plan is as long as President Milei continues with his strong economic policies to help him, to bridge him to the election, we are not going to let a disequilibrium in the market cause a backup in his substantial economic reforms," Bessent said.The admission stunned social media users, some of whom wondered why he'd say that out loud."'To bridge him to the election' – dude, you're not supposed to say that part out loud," posted author Rob Tracinski."Scott Bessent links bailout of Argentina to Trump's election interference, even as Argentina poaches U.S. soybean markets," wrote legal expert Marcy Wheeler, linking to her blog post on the topic."Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explicitly states that U.S. intervention in the Argentinian economy is to help Javier Milei in his upcoming election," said political and media researcher Craig Harrington."BESSENT: INVESTMENTS HINGE ON A POSITIVE ELECTION OUTCOME," noted Bluesky user Nacmtrader17. "Vote for our preferred candidate and we will bail you out.""Absolutely NOT!" added Bluesky user Tamela Ehlinger. "None of our tax $$$ go to Argentina for the mad man who tanked their economy & will do the same with a cash infusion Bessent & the orange-tainted howler monkey want to do this to make sure that Milei wins the next election to keep another bastard in power." — (@)

'Everyone else is corrupt': Trump accused of borrowing 'cynical ploy' from Putin playbook

09/26/25 4:23 PM

President Donald Trump has corrupted the Department of Justice to target his political enemies as part of a "cynical ploy" borrowed from Vladimir Putin, according to a former federal prosecutor.A federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey for making alleged false statements to Congress and obstruction of justice, both based on his denial that he had authorized leaks to the media about the 2016 investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails, and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade published a column for Bloomberg examining the case on its merits."The indictment came a week after Trump posted a demand to Attorney General Pam Bondi to charge Comey and other perceived enemies, calling them 'guilty as hell,'" McQuade wrote. "Perhaps cognizant that the five-year statute of limitations would be expiring within days, Trump added, 'We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility.'"That social media post made plain the DOJ was acting on Trump's orders, but he made that even more obvious by replacing the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who questioned the case's strength with a former personal attorney of his who has never prosecuted a single case before presenting the Comey evidence to a grand jury."By directing his DOJ to charge Comey, Trump appears to be borrowing a tactic from the playbook of Vladimir Putin," McQuade wrote. "According to Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser, Putin doesn’t try to convince the Russian people that he is honest. Instead, he works to persuade them that everyone else is corrupt.""It’s a cynical ploy meant to condition people to tolerate corruption," she added. "If voters believe that all public officials are crooks, then they will overlook the crooked leader who professes to share their values."Trump, of course, is the only president who has ever been convicted of a felony – all 34 counts against him in the only criminal case out of four in which he faced trial – and McQuade suspects his vindictive prosecution of Comey, and the others he's threatened, shows he's playing the same game as the Russian president he admires."If Trump can make people believe that indictments like the one targeting Comey are meaningless, then the indictments against him can be dismissed just as easily," McQuade wrote. "Indeed, following the Comey indictment, New York Democratic Representative Dan Goldman said, 'The problem is how are you ever going to know whether an investigation by the FBI, an investigation by the Department of Justice, is legitimate or is corrupt.'""Exactly," she added. "When everyone is corrupt, then no one is."

'First time ever': Trump makes vague comments about 'greatness in the Middle East'

09/28/25 1:03 PM

Donald Trump on Sunday made a vague statement about "greatness in the Middle East."The president took to his own social media site, Truth Social, at a time when Israel and Hamas are continuing to fight over the remaining hostages.Without stating anything specific, Trump wrote, "We have a real chance for GREATNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST.""ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, FIRST TIME EVER," the president then added. "WE WILL GET IT DONE!!! President DJT"Read the post here.

'Hurting farmers': Trump admin just made an 'unusual acknowledgement' about its policies

10/11/25 9:29 PM

Donald Trump's administration just made an "unusual acknowledgement" about its immigration policies, according to a new report Saturday.In a weekend article called "Trump administration says immigration enforcement threatens higher food prices," the Washington Post reported, "In an unusual acknowledgement, the Labor Department said that tougher immigration enforcement is hurting farmers and the food supply.""The Trump administration said that its immigration crackdown is hurting farmers and risking higher food prices for Americans by cutting off agriculture’s labor supply," according to the Post. "The Labor Department warned in an obscure document filed with the Federal Register last week that 'the near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens' is threatening 'the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.'"“Unless the Department acts immediately to provide a source of stable and lawful labor, this threat will grow,” the official document reportedly states. “The Department concludes that qualified and eligible U.S. workers will not make themselves available in sufficient numbers."According to the report, "The American Prospect first reported on the Labor Department’s comments that immigration policies are endangering the food supply and that American workers are unwilling to take agricultural jobs.""The Labor Department’s comments appear to be the first time that the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged that its hallmark immigration policy — sealing the border and deporting undocumented immigrants — threatens labor shortages and higher food prices," according to the outlet's reporting. "However, economists have been sounding the alarm since Trump campaigned on the issue during last year’s presidential election."Read the full piece here.

'If Peace Fails, We Have Other Means': Taliban Minister On Pak Conflict

10/13/25 12:10 AM

Afghanistan wants a peaceful resolution of its ongoing conflict with Pakistan, but if the peace efforts don't succeed, then it has "other means", Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said

'It's a talent tax': AI CEOs fear demise as they accuse Trump of launching 'labor war'

10/06/25 11:02 AM

Flanked by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump hosted a White House dinner with some of the richest and most powerful leaders of the world’s tech giants.To Fraser Patterson, CEO and founder of Skillit, an AI-powered construction hiring platform, it was no coincidence that after the meeting last month of more than 30 Silicon Valley power players and Trump advisers, the administration unveiled a plan to charge $100,000 one-time application fees for H-1B visas, which tech companies typically use to employ highly skilled foreign workers.“It can appear as though, rather than it being an improvement to immigration policy, it feels a little more like a labor war strategy,” Patterson said.“Isn't one of the great tenets of the American way of life and Constitution the separation of church and state? Wouldn't that extend to business, too, between business and state?”Patterson’s New York-based company employs eight — an infinitesimal fraction of the workforce at giants like Amazon, with more than a million employees and nearly 15,000 H-1B visa holders.“The largest technology companies are going to be able to hoard the best global talent, and I think it's easy to be able to draw a straight line between that and shutting out the smaller startups and the smaller firms that can’t enforce that price tag,” Patterson said. “I think it scales back the competitiveness of the technology industry, broadly speaking.”‘Global war on talent’The Trump administration says the current H-1B visa program allows employers “to hire foreign workers at a significant discount to American workers,” and the program has been “abused.”Last week Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) reintroduced bipartisan legislation, The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, to close loopholes in programs they say tech giants have used while laying off Americans.But, Patterson said, limiting H-1B visas will effectively end up “closing the door on skilled workers” and “gift Europe the best possible opportunity to label itself as the tech talent hub. “The general consensus is this is going to narrow the pool,” Patterson said. “There's going to be just fewer nationalities represented, fewer ideas. The U.S. becomes less of a magnet.”Rich Pleeth, CEO and founder of Finmile, an AI-powered logistics and delivery software, agreed that the fee might tilt the scales of tech dominance away from the U.S., where places like San Francisco and New York have long been considered global hubs for innovation.“The global war on talent is real,” Pleeth said. “Europe has a golden opportunity … Canada, Singapore, Berlin, they're all going to benefit.” Rich Pleeth (provided photo)Finmile employs 15 people in the U.K., seven in Romania and two in the U.S.“It's very challenging for smaller companies like us,” Pleeth said. “Talent is everything, and if the U.S. makes it harder to bring in the world's best talent, where do you set up headquarters?”While the Trump administration says the new H1-B fee will help American workers, particularly recent college graduates seeking IT jobs, Patterson said it would have the opposite effect, likely leading to “greater offshoring.”Thanks to Trump’s array of trade tariffs, which he says will bring jobs back to the U.S., many American small businesses are already struggling to survive as they face increased costs.“In reality, it's probably going to lead to labor shortages,” Patterson said. “You can't just turn on a faucet overnight to really highly skilled local workers.”Nicole Whitaker, an immigration attorney in Towson, Md., said the proposed $100,000 fee sends the message to foreign workers seeking job opportunities in the U.S. that "our doors are closed ... find another country.""This is a part of a bigger and broader push by this administration — even if things don't go into effect— to make it look like we are shutting down our borders. We are not open, and we're not welcoming toward immigrants," Whitaker said.‘The next Googles’ Pleeth, a former marketing manager at Google, pointed to tech leaders including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who were born in India but came to the U.S. for college and to work.“If you suddenly make it hard for talented people to come in, the next Googles are not going to be built in the U.S.,” Pleeth said. “Talent is the oxygen for the tech industry. For decades the U.S. had an open pipeline … we don't expect the $100K toll to hit the tech companies who are the ones who can afford it the most.”Skillit currently does not have any employees sponsored through the H-1B visa program but Patterson said he had used it when the fees were more reasonable, around $2,500.Patterson, who was born in Scotland, came to the U.S. on an O-1 visa for foreign workers of “extraordinary talent.” He is now close to becoming a U.S. citizen. Fraser Patterson (provided photo)“Very onerous, nerve-racking, even to get here … but I would say it wasn't disproportional to the value of coming here,” he said.Pleeth wants to move from the U.K. to the U.S. with his wife, two daughters and dog, a process he expects some challenges with but is hopeful will “eventually move forward.”“It's just going to become a lot harder for junior people who can share cultures, can come in with new ideas,” Pleeth said. “It's a talent tax.”

'Make himself richer': Jared Kushner said to have 'played' Trump to grease his own pockets

10/11/25 7:54 PM

Donald Trump's son-in-law just "played the president," according to a controversial writer.Michael Wolff, a journalist who has written four books about Trump, claimed on a recent episode of the podcast "Inside Trump's Head" that Jared Kushner may have recently "played" the president in connection with their efforts to secure a Middle Eastern peace deal.In a piece called "How Jared Played Trump to Grease Own Pocket: Wolff," The Daily Beast quotes the writer in asserting "Kushner’s business connections and Trump manipulation may have cleared the way for a Gaza peace deal."The outlet further notes, "Donald Trump’s (so-far) successful plan to end the conflict in Gaza was orchestrated by Jared Kushner in a bid to make himself richer, according to Trump biographer Michael Wolff. Speaking on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast, Wolff outlined how Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, played Qatar and the president in order to further his own business interests."The article quotes Wolff as saying Kushner "craves influence in the Middle East. He craves business opportunities in the Middle East. He craves further, deeper relationships with the powerful people in the Middle East, all of which is helped by peace. So peace becomes a byproduct of business."The Beast continues:"Wolff believes Kushner, along with real estate developer and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, pressed their business connections with Middle Eastern royal families to broker the Israel and Hamas deal. On Friday, The New York Times reported on the extent of the pair’s involvement, which earned bipartisan praise."“The Qataris basically say... we will come down hard on Hamas,” added Wolff. “And remember, Israel attacked the Hamas negotiators, essentially the top Hamas leadership in Qatar. So they were completely freaked out about this. And I think they realized, this is not in our interest."Wolff himself has also been the source of some controversy. High-profile people like Tony Blair and Sean Hannity have denied quotes published by Wolff in his books.Read the full article here (subscription required).