03 World
Exclusive: Ukraine pitches tougher Russia sanctions plan to EU as US wavers – Reuters
Source Link
Source Link
Excerpt:
Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn’t just show up to Tuesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing; he came loaded for bear. Ostensibly there to discuss the FY26 State Department budget, Rubio instead delivered a scathing indictment of China’s global con game and exposed shocking failures in America’s foreign aid system. What unfolded wasn’t routine testimony; it was a political thunderclap and a long-overdue reckoning.
As I’m sure you recall, Democrats have been having hissy fits over USAID cuts. They claim that the Trump administration was axing vital humanitarian aid when in reality, it was targeting waste, fraud, and abuse.
Just how bad is the waste, fraud, and abuse? Rubio revealed that under the old USAID model, only 12 cents of every dollar made it to the intended recipients. “That means that in order for us to get, you know, aid to somebody, we had to spend all this other money supporting this foreign aid industrial complex,” he said. In other words, U.S. taxpayers were funding bloated overhead while struggling nations got table scraps.
Source Link
Excerpt:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the creation of a special review panel on Tuesday to investigate the Biden administration’s “chaotic” 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
“President Trump and I have formally pledged full transparency for what transpired during our military withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Department of Defense has an obligation, both to the American people and to the warfighters who sacrificed their youth in Afghanistan, to get to the facts,” Hegseth wrote in an agency memo released on Tuesday.
In his directive, Hegseth disclosed that the Defense Department has been conducting “a review” throughout the past three months of what the secretary described as a “catastrophic event in our military’s history.” Based on the probe’s findings, Hegseth “concluded that we need to conduct a comprehensive review to ensure that accountability for this event is met and that the complete picture is provided to the American people.”
The memo tasks Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and Senior Advisor Sean Parnell to “convene a Special Review Panel (SRP) for the Department who will thoroughly examine previous investigations.” As noted in a Defense Department press release, Parnell spent 485 days stationed in Afghanistan and was “wounded in action” along with many of his fellow soldiers.
Source Link
Excerpt:
President Donald Trump, who seeks to prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, wants to secure a new nuclear agreement with that country. Trump’s motive is honorable. Difficult diplomacy is preferable to military strikes on Iran. But numerous complications stand in the president’s way, and perhaps none of these complications is more significant than the growing threat of Iranian terrorist attacks.
Yes, formalizing a viable Iran nuclear agreement represents a big challenge in and of itself. For one, Iran has engaged in more than two decades of deceptive conduct via its covert research of nuclear warheads. Any deal would thus need to ensure prompt inspection access to any sites suspected of being used to conduct illicit nuclear weapons research. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action had woefully inadequate safeguards in this regard.
Another difficulty arises in the Trump administration’s new insistence that Iran suspend all nuclear enrichment, even at very low purity levels, in return for any deal. This demand conflicts with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s belief that his Islamic Republic should be allowed to engage in some enrichment as a matter of honor. Khamenei might well regard the risks of U.S. military action as less concerning than the loss of prestige and regime confidence that would go with suspending all enrichment activities. Allowing Iran to maintain its nuclear facilities, albeit in a nonoperational status, might allow the regime to save face. But probably not.
Source Link
Excerpt:
The coroner’s inquest into the euthanasia death of Normand Meunier continued last week in Saint-Jérôme, Québec.
The inquest examined how Meunier acquired the horrific bedsore that resulted in Meunier dying by euthanasia (Medical Assistance In Dying—MAID).
Coroner’s inquest into Québec euthanasia death of man with a bed sore.
On May 13, Leora Schertzer reported for the Montreal Gazette that:
Geneviève Paradis, a nurse who cared for Normand Meunier during his time in the ICU, testified Monday that she did not check Meunier’s bedsores, noting that the hospital was short staffed. Another nurse, Rachel Lanthier, testified she thought one bedsore was significant, but did not see any records of it in Meunier’s hospital file to make a comparison and track the wound’s growth.
Source Link
Excerpt:
India’s Operation Sindoor is haunting both Pakistan and China, the former due to the non-explanation for sponsoring cross-border terrorism and the massive physical loss of military assets and face, and the latter due to the utter failure of its military equipment sold to Pakistan and the diplomatic fallout of supporting an “ironclad” friend.Diplomatically, after the Pahalgam terror attacks, China expressed its concern and called for restraint on India’s part, while reiterating support for Pakistan both regionally and in the United Nations’ #1267 al-Qaeda sanctions committee. China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, discussed issues with his Pakistan counterpart, Ishaq Dar, and India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, without any concrete proposals in hand.
Source Link
Excerpt:
Russian forces in Ukraine are suffering casualties at more than 400,000 per year — enough to pack the house at the world’s four largest stadiums. Losses like these have been fuel for simultaneous talk of inevitable Russian defeat or victory in the public conversation.
What should we make of this talk? Can Russian forces sustain similar losses in its ongoing war in Ukraine and rebuild to fight another day? The likely answer is “yes,” and it speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approach toward negotiations to end the war. In refusing to agree to an unconditional ceasefire and skipping the latest peace talks in Turkey, Putin is playing for time — because time appears to be on his side.
While Russia could run out of quality recruits, force replenishment through 2024 was far more successful than many predicted. In April of that year, NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Gen. Christopher Cavoli observed that “Russia is reconstituting that force far faster than our initial estimates suggested. The army is actually now larger — by 15 percent — than it was when it invaded Ukraine.” Whether Russia can maintain its ability to reconstitute and even grow its forces as its war in Ukraine progresses remains uncertain. More certain is its advantage over Ukraine in terms of total population, with nearly four times as many people and roughly 18.9 million males aged 20–39 relative to Ukraine’s fewer than five million males of that age. Russia can lose three times as many troops as Ukraine and still suffer less in relative terms.
Source Link
Excerpt:
US President Donald Trump has unveiled a scheme to build a $175 billion (€154bn) missile defence system called the “Golden Dome”, claiming it could be “fully operational” by the end of his presidential term.The announcement on Tuesday came roughly four months after Trump signed an executive order, instructing the Pentagon to draw up plans to defend the US against “catastrophic” aerial attacks.
Although the exact scope of the Golden Dome project remains unclear, Trump said the system would involve “next-generation” technologies, including space-based sensors and interceptors.
“Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they are launched from space,” Trump claimed.
Excerpt:
Nvidia and Foxconn Hon Hai Technology Group today announced they are deepening their longstanding partnership and are working with the Taiwan government to build an AI factory supercomputer that will deliver state-of-the-art Nvidia Blackwell infrastructure to researchers, startups and industries.
Foxconn will provide the AI infrastructure through its subsidiary Big Innovation Company as an Nvidia Cloud Partner. Featuring 10,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, the AI factory will significantly expand AI computing availability and fuel innovation for Taiwan researchers and enterprises.
The Taiwan National Science and Technology Council will use the Big Innovation Company supercomputer to provide AI cloud computing resources to the Taiwan technology ecosystem, accelerating AI development and adoption across sectors.
TSMC researchers plan to leverage the system to advance its research and development with orders-of-magnitude faster performance, compared with previous-generation systems.
“AI has ignited a new industrial revolution — science and industry will be transformed,” said Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia in a keynote talk at Computex 2025 in Taiwan. “We are delighted to partner with Foxconn and Taiwan to help build Taiwan’s AI infrastructure, and to support TSMC and other leading companies to advance innovation in the age of AI and robotics.”
Source Link
Excerpt:
The growing impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs is creating “tensions” among members of the G7 heading into a critical summit in Canada next month, the federal finance minister says.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem are chairing three days of meetings with top finance officials from the world’s largest economies in Banff, Alta., this week. The talks are expected to focus on the war in Ukraine and artificial intelligence, and how the G7 members can work together to grow the global economy.
However, Trump’s aggressive trade policies are likely to dominate the proceedings, and could even impact what members can feasibly agree to.
“There’s no doubt that around the table, you need to find unity, but at the same time, it’s true that the tariffs are creating tensions amongst the different partners,” Champagne told Global News in an interview from Calgary on Tuesday.
Source Link
Excerpt:
At least two members of Trump’s cabinet sold substantial stock holdings just before and on the day of the president’s surprise April 2 tariff announcement that shook global markets and triggered a $2.4 trillion sell-off. Attorney General Pam Bondi divested millions in assets on the day Trump announced the “Liberation Day” tariffs, while Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sold stocks on the days leading up to it, according to recently filed disclosures with the Office of Government Ethics.
Source Link
Excerpt:
China’s economy showed signs of slowing in April as President Donald Trump’s trade war took a toll, with retail sales, property and investment coming in weaker than economists had forecast. Industrial production slowed as Trump’s painfully high tariffs of up to 145 per cent, and 125 per cent retaliatory duties imposed by Beijing, took effect and shipments were curtailed. National Statistics Bureau spokesperson Fu Linghui said the general trend was positive though he pointed to “external shocks” that had gained intensity.
“It should also be noted that there are still many outside unstable and uncertain factors, and the foundation for the continued recovery and improvement of the national economy needs to be further consolidated,” Fu said. Here are a few key indicators reported Monday.
Retail sales Chinese consumers have been holding back after the shocks of a prolonged downturn in the housing market that is the source of much household wealth. Retail sales rose 5.1 per cent from a year earlier in April, below economists’ expectations for a 6 per cent increase. Fu said Beijing would continue to focus on supporting job creation and spurring more domestic demand.
Source Link
Excerpt:
President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa about claims of a white genocide by showing video footage in the Oval Office of alleged burial sites of white farmers.
“Turn the lights down and just put this on,” Trump said as he directed Ramaphosa to watch a video montage of political rallies with widespread chants of “kill the farmer!” and images of grave sites.
“These are burial sites right here…. Over a thousand of white farmers,” Trump pointed out to the president, who had denied claims of genocide, saying murder and crime are not unique to white farmers.
Following the video’s conclusion, Trump showed printouts of news articles on persecution as Ramaphosa urged a calm dialogue on the subject.
“What you saw, the speeches that were being made, one that is not government policy,” Ramaphosa told Trump of those calling for killings. “We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies. And in many cases, or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy.
Source Link
Excerpt:
Sharing the costs of hosting U.S. troops in allied countries has been a favorite topic of U.S. President Donald Trump since his first term in the White House.
But as more countries try to eke out a deal to escape the spectre of tariffs in his second term, Trump is making his own moves: bundling negotiations on trade, tariffs, and defense cost-sharing into a single comprehensive deal, which he called “one-stop shopping.”
One such country in his sights is South Korea, which is home to about 28,500 U.S. troops known as U.S. Forces Korea. On April 8, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had discussed “payment for the big time Military Protection we provide to South Korea,” among other issues, with then-acting president Han Duck-soo.
“We are bringing up other subjects that are not covered by Trade and Tariffs, and getting them negotiated also. “ONE STOP SHOPPING” is a beautiful and efficient process!!!” Trump wrote.
Source Link
Excerpt:
Democrats continue to mindlessly oppose everything President Donald Trump does, even policies they have rabidly supported for years.
Normally extreme supporters of open borders and immigration without limitation, Democrats suddenly oppose Trump’s executive order giving Afrikaners refugee status.
Their bigoted objection? The color of the refugees’ skin. Afrikaners, a persecuted minority ethnic group, are white South Africans with Dutch ancestry and an old European culture.
The government of South Africa has made it legal to take Afrikaners’ farmland without compensation. Trump’s order offers “Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination” refugee resettlement in the United States.
But their suffering can never compare, apparently, to the millions of other people with darker skin who are persecuted around the globe. Democrats believe they all should be given unfettered entrance into the U.S.
Source Link
Excerpt:
Source Link
Excerpt:
President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a video of South African communists calling for the murder of white farmers.
Just watch. You’ll notice Ramaphosa sometimes just listening to the video, not watching it.
Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites — over a thousand — of White farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there is approximately a thousand of them.
They’re all White farmers. The family of White farmers. And those cars aren’t, driving, they are stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. On both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people are all killed.
WATCH: @POTUS shows South African President Cyril Ramaphosa a video compilation of what’s taking place against white farmers in South Africa pic.twitter.com/80rQqiT2qi
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) May 21, 2025
Source Link
Excerpt:
The latest back-and-forth on a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran hinges on enrichment, and the question may put nails in the coffin of any new agreement.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday, after weeks of mixed messages, that no future accord can allow Iran the right to enrich uranium.
“We have one very, very clear red line, and that is enrichment,” Witkoff told ABC’s This Week anchor Jonathan Karl. “We cannot allow even 1 percent of an enrichment capability.”
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday denounced Witkoff’s remarks, describing calls for the Islamic Republic to give up enrichment entirely as “nonsense.”
Source Link
Excerpt:
In March, President Donald Trump announced a full halt to U.S. foreign aid to South Africa, citing the government’s racially charged abuse of white Afrikaner farmers. He blasted the regime for orchestrated land seizures and escalating violence, calling the country “a bad place to be right now.” At the same time, he offered a fast track to U.S. citizenship for South African farmers and their families seeking safety from persecution.
The black-led South African government has flatly denied any campaign of anti-white violence, brushing off the attacks as fiction and painting any criticism as offensive. But the facts on the ground — brutal murders, farm invasions, and open calls for land expropriation — tell a different story.
On Wednesday, in a high-stakes Oval Office meeting, Trump directly challenged South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with hard evidence of racially motivated violence. While the media works overtime to downplay the confrontation, Trump once again cut through the diplomatic spin and forced an uncomfortable truth into the open.
Source Link
Excerpt:
President Trump on Wednesday held a bilateral meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa amid the genocide of White Afrikaner farmers.
During the meeting, Trump played a compilation of Africans calling for the genocide of White Afrikaners after Ramaphosa told reporters that President Trump is wrong about the genocide and needs to “listen” to South Africans. .
The Gateway Pundit has reported extensively on the White genocide in South Africa.
South Africa: Attackers Chant “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer” Before Stabbing Woman with Spear
Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, Julius Malema, has infamously led chants and songs calling for White farmers to be murdered. The video that Trump played featured a compilation of Malema, calling to “shoot to kill” and “kill the boer, the farmer,” and others calling for White farmer genocide in South Africa.