Top World News
'Laughing at us': War vet slams Trump after jarring gaffe with foreign leader
President Donald Trump had a cringeworthy moment with world leaders this week, an MSNBC panel argued on Thursday. Trump was meeting with five African leaders, including Liberian President Joseph Boakai. “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?” Trump gushed. The president attempted to explain that his country's national language is English, but Trump continued. “Such good English,” he said. “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?” Mr. Trump continued. “Where? Were you educated? Where?”Paul Rieckhoff, founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, responded to the moment by calling Trump "an embarrassment every day, but especially on the national stage when the world is watching.""I mean, the capital of Liberia is Monrovia because it's named after the American President [James] Monroe," said Reickhoff, citing the fifth president of the United States. "I mean, the flag even looks like our flag. I mean, this is really basic stuff that most American representatives of our nation know, or at least have the respect to learn before they speak to a group of people."He said that it's hurting America's standing. "I mean, there's some folks who are laughing at us. There are some folks who just lost respect for us, but it's just — it's such an embarrassment, and I don't think we can just gloss gloss past it as a flub, or it's just how he is. I mean, this reflects poorly on our entire nation, and we should never normalize it." The New York Times explained on Wednesday about Liberia's deep ties to the U.S. as part of "America’s 'Back to Africa' movement and the American Colonization Society, a group formed in 1816 by philanthropists, abolitionists, and some slave owners. That society, established in part as a response to rebellions of enslaved people, helped resettle free Black Americans in what would become Liberia."See the clip below or at the link here. - YouTube www.youtube.com
Caster Semenya calls for athletes’ rights to be put first as court rules in her favour
ECHR rules South African runner did not have fair trial on need to lower testosterone levels to compete in women’s sportThe South African runner Caster Semenya has called for athletes’ rights to be better protected after Europe’s top human rights court ruled that she had not been given a fair trial when she contested a policy that required her to lower her testosterone levels in order to compete in women’s sport.The decision, handed down on Thursday by the European court of human rights, was the latest twist in the two-time Olympic gold medallist’s extraordinary legal battle. Continue reading...
Bangladesh’s ousted Sheikh Hasina charged with crimes against humanity
Former leader, who is in hiding in India, indicted over deadly crackdown on anti-government protests last yearBangladesh’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina has been formally charged with crimes against humanity after being accused of ordering a deadly crackdown against anti-government protests last year that left more than 1,400 people dead.Hasina, who fled the country on 5 August last year, was charged in absentia by a three-judge panel on Thursday. She remains in hiding in neighbouring India and has ignored formal requests for her to return. Continue reading...
High-risk HIV groups facing record levels of criminalisation as countries bring in draconian laws
Curbs on LGBTQ+ rights and a halt to US funding may reverse decades of progress in fight to end Aids epidemic, warns UNAidsPeople at higher risk of HIV, such as gay men and people who inject drugs, are facing record levels of criminalisation worldwide, according to UNAids.For the first time since the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids began reporting on punitive laws a decade ago, the number of countries criminalising same-sex sexual activity and gender expression has increased. Continue reading...
Ukraine arrests Chinese father and son on suspicion of spying
Pair accused of spying on Neptune missile programme, which is seen as critical to defence against RussiaUkraine says it has arrested a Chinese father and son on suspicion of spying on its Neptune anti-ship missile programme, a key part of Kyiv’s growing domestic arms industry that is critical to its defence against Russian forces.The announcement by Ukraine’s security service (SBU) follows assertions by Kyiv in recent months that Beijing, which has sought to project an image of neutrality, is helping the Kremlin’s war effort. Continue reading...
Lobbyists linked to Donald Trump paid millions by world’s poorest countries
Somalia, DR Congo and Yemen among states forced to sign deals and barter their minerals for aid or military supportSome of the world’s poorest countries have started paying millions to lobbyists linked to Donald Trump to try to offset US cuts to foreign aid, an investigation reveals.Somalia, Haiti and Yemen are among 11 countries to sign significant lobbying deals with figures tied directly to the US president after he slashed US foreign humanitarian assistance. Continue reading...
'Humiliating': MSNBC panel says Putin 'laughing' at 'snowflake' Trump
Russian President Vladimir Putin is laughing at President Donald Trump, said one MSNBC host on Tuesday. Trump has been asked about Putin and the state of the war against Ukraine after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth paused a weapons shipment to the war-torn country. On Tuesday, when asked about the matter, Trump said, "We get a lot of bulls--- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.""Another reversal from Donald Trump today after a seemingly humiliating call during which he admitted he again made zero progress," MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said. "Getting to this took maybe the clearest, most obvious sign yet that Putin doesn't want peace," Wallace continued, noting that he launched "the largest air attack against Ukraine since the start of the war, just hours after his call with Donald J. Trump."The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum said that, despite Trump's anger with Putin, he still seems to be laying on compliments while halting the issuance of new sanctions on Russia. It's one of several things she said is "sending a message to the Russians, telling them, essentially, that the U.S. isn't playing the game anymore, and they're welcome to keep going. And that's why Putin is still going. That's why he's stepping up his attacks."She was speaking to Wallace from Warsaw, Poland, and noted that Europeans see Trump making concessions to Putin."And then, somehow, Trump is surprised when Putin laughs at him and continues fighting, even though he said he seemed to believe that he said he wouldn't," said Applebaum. Wallace wondered if there was a strategic play to move Trump away from the Russians while he's being "so publicly ignored. And it would seem Putin's laughing at him. He gets off the phone and bombs the you-know-what out of Ukraine after Trump asks him not to. I mean, is there any consideration given to playing this very public humiliation of Donald Trump that Vladimir Putin is clearly enjoying?"Applebaum said that many Republican senators have pushed back on Trump "for a long time." After a commercial break, Wallace recalled Trump being asked who he turns to for advice, and Trump said "himself" and his "big brain."Commentator John Heilemann called Trump a "pouty little snowflake," who "sounds like a 14-year-old who's just been learning the hard way that the quarterback, the varsity quarterback, just is not into her — or into him. Whichever. It's just, it's the most infantile kind of pathetic display."See the discussions below or at the link here. - YouTube www.youtube.com - YouTube youtu.be
Republican senator blasts Trump's Pentagon over new 'mess' to 'clean up'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth halted shipments of weapons to Ukraine that were already loaded onto trucks in Europe and ready for delivery. However, on Monday night, President Donald Trump intervened and instructed the aid be sent, and Republicans are celebrating that the president is embracing a defense against Russia. Hegseth had previously claimed that sending the weapons would jeopardize the United States' readiness, but experts disagreed, NBC News reported last week. Trump commented Monday, "We have to" send the weapons. "They have to be able to defend themselves."McConnell said in a statement on his Senate website that he was pleased with the decision, following his criticism of the Trump administration's restrictions on aid and its military budget, which he alleged was insufficient, Politico reported. “Today, the strategic incoherence of underfunding our military and restricting lethal assistance to partners like Ukraine is measured in the avoidable erosion of American credibility with allies and the mounting deaths of innocents,” McConnell said in a statement.Speaking to his Cabinet on Tuesday, Trump was asked about Ukraine but seemed clueless on some details. CNN's Katlin Collins asked Trump who ordered the stop of the weapons delivery. He confessed, "I don't know," as Hegseth was seated to his left. "Why don't you tell me?"McConnell complained about “those at DoD who invoke munitions shortages to block aid while refusing to invest seriously in expanding munitions production.”Without saying his name, McConnell was likely referring to defense policy chief Elbridge Colby, who has claimed U.S. stockpiles are running low. McConnell was the only person to vote against his appointment, said Politico. “The self-indulgent policymaking of restrainers — from Ukraine to AUKUS — has so often required the President to clean up his staff’s messes,” McConnell said.Another reporter questioned Trump on Tuesday about Ukraine's reports that Russia used toxic chemicals during the fight. Ukraine has requested that the International Criminal Court intervene. Trump didn't know about that either, the videos show. "What do you know about this, Pete?" Trump asked, leaning over to Hegseth. Hegseth could be heard whispering that CIA Director John Ratcliffe might know.Trump pivoted, "Well, I'd ask John to discuss it."Ratcliffe dodged, reiterating the international policy that the use of chemical weapons is illegal. He said he couldn't share any intelligence on the matter, but he knew that Trump doesn't stand for the use of chemical weapons. Meanwhile, House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-AL) said that Trump sending the weapons could send a message to Putin that he must negotiate a peace agreement. "President Trump is right that now is not the time to pause U.S. military aid to support Ukraine’s defense,” he said in a statement.Read the full report here.
'Faded away': Expert despairs as Supreme Court ends 'glimmer of independence'
Any sign that the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court were interested in checking President Donald Trump's power have subsided, legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern wrote for Slate in a scathing roundup of the court's agenda this term.He focused particularly on the abrupt heel-turn of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's third appointee.His column follows the court's abrupt decision to allow the Trump administration to deport migrants to South Sudan, despite them never having been to that country and despite a near-total lack of due process."Less than six months into the second Trump administration, the Supreme Court has settled on a posture of complicity toward the executive branch’s assault on civil liberties and democracy itself," wrote Stern. "The 47th president seeks to restructure the government around his own whims, blasting through any barrier that restrains him as he embarks on a project to illegally freeze spending, end birthright citizenship, and disappear noncitizens to black sites, among other autocratic ambitions. And six Republican-appointed justices are falling over themselves to help him do it."The particularly notable thing about the sudden shower of shadow-docket decisions nullifying lower-court checks on Trump, as well as the potentially landmark Trump v. CASA decision that puts new limits on the ability to even block illegal orders from the Trump administration, is how quickly the Supreme Court's modicum of resistance to Trump fell apart, Stern wrote."From January through March, the court looked to be taking a cautious approach to his presidency, seeking out compromises and imposing limits on his authority," he wrote. "Early on, Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s vote seemed to be in play, as did Chief Justice John Roberts’, to a lesser extent. Along with the liberals, the two justices forced Trump to attend his criminal sentencing shortly before he reentered the White House. They ordered his administration to pay out $2 billion in foreign aid that it illegally withheld." The two justices then joined a few liberal dissents when the majority allowed Trump to resume certain illegal deportations and withhold Education Department grants.However, he continued, "By May, these glimmers of independence had faded away. Roberts and Barrett now appear to be almost entirely on board with Trump’s agenda, enabling his consolidation of power at the expense of the other branches, the states, and the people. Perhaps they have simply given up trying to police this administration, fearing that, if they continued to try, they would reveal their own impotence in the face of an aspiring autocrat. Or maybe, as CASA suggests, they believe that the biggest outrage of Trump’s term so far isn’t his own lawless agenda, but the lower courts that dare shoot it down."At this point, Stern continued, the only areas in which these justices shoot down Trump, as with placing limits on the Alien Enemies Act for deportations, it "may be better understood as preserving the court’s own authority — reminding the president that, in the end, the justices get the final say on what the law requires." But all too often, that say still goes in Trump's favor, he concluded.
Trump aide blames failed trade deals on foreign comfort: 'They have it so good'
President Donald Trump announced nearly 15 new tariffs that will take effect Aug. 1, as the countries have not been willing to make a deal with the United States.July 9 was the initial deadline for Trump to reach 90 trade deals in 90 days, but he's looking to push that deadline back after it became clear the president couldn't meet his "deals" goal. Speaking to MSNBC on Monday, White House correspondent Vaughn Hillyard said he spoke to Peter Navarro, senior counselor to the president on trade, about the new tariffs. Hillyard said that he asked why Trump couldn't make 90 deals in 90 days as he promised. Navarro claimed, "Because the rest of the countries have it so good, they're dragging their heels."Hillary then asked why countries should take the United States seriously about the new Aug. 1 deadline when it appears Trump is willing to push back the date repeatedly. "Again, if, for example, the stock market falls and [Navarro] told me, 'It doesn't matter from the sense that we're collecting billions of dollars on behalf of the American public. I think this is a live ball here at this White House as we watch these new deadlines come into fruition."For over a year, economists have been saying that Trump's tariffs are not being paid by the countries exporting the goods.See the clip below or at the link here. - YouTube youtu.be
Trump escalates trade war with steep new tariffs on slew of additional countries
President Donald Trump slapped a series of tariffs on several more countries Monday afternoon as the deadline for his "90 Deals in 90 Days" pledge approaches. Trump, who penned several letters sent to leaders of Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, and South Africa, issued another list a few hours later. Posting to his Truth Social platform, Trump put up letters to Thailand, Cambodia, Serbia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Tunisia. In those letters, he announced tariffs of 30% to 36% on the countries and warned of consequences if they retaliated.The top exports from Thailand include computers, teleprinters, telephone sets, and rubber products, the U.S. Trade Representative site says. Cambodia's exports include apparel, footwear, and travel goods.Serbia's exports focus on tires, arms and ammunition, and other machinery, the Observatory of Economic Complexity reported. Bangladesh exports raw cotton, petroleum gas, scrap iron, and a number of apparel items, according to Trending Economics.Indonesia exports electronics, apparel, footwear, and agricultural products.Bosnia and Herzegovina exports explosive ammunition, rubber footwear and mattresses. Tunisia exports pure olive oil, mixed mineral or chemical fertilizers, and crude petroleum.Politico reported on Saturday that a person close to the White House said, “You only have to assume he doesn’t want to take them because he likes the game too much."
Trump uncorks massive new tariffs and sends warning shot if countries respond
President Donald Trump posted several letters he sent to the leaders of Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, and South Africa, telling them that as of Aug. 1, he will increase the tax on goods coming into the United States from their countries from 25-40%. "If for any reason you decide to raise your tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25% that we charge," he told the Malaysian prime minister in the letter. The Trading Economics website said that the top exports to the United States from Malaysia are electrical and electronic products, machinery, and rubber products. South Africa's top exports to the United States are precious metals and stones, such as minerals, lime, and cement, along with vehicles and agricultural products, according to the Department of Commerce. Laos' top exports to the United States are optical fibers, leather footwear, and knitted hats. Kazakhstan's exports to the United States are largely dominated by oil, including crude petroleum, ferroalloys, and refined petroleumMyanmar exports include a lot of apparel, both knit and non-knit, articles of leather and travel goods, footwear, and electrical and electronic equipment.
