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Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that he only learned of a second strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat to finish off two survivors “a couple of hours later.” Hegseth disavowed responsibility amid a congressional outcry over the Sept. 2 follow-up attack on the wrecked vessel.

Donald Trump on Tuesday called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said they should be sent back home in a rant that came as the administration is reportedly increasing immigration enforcement against undocumented Somalis in Minnesota. In a xenophobic rant during a cabinet meeting, Trump went off on Somalis and Ilhan Omar, the congressional representative who is from Somalia and is a US citizen. He said Somalia “stinks” and is “no good for a reason”. “They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. He called Omar “garbage” and said “we’re going to go...

The US president said that Joe Biden "gave away $350 billion"WASHINGTON, December 2. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has stated that his country is no longer involved in the Ukrainian crisis in terms of financing it. "As you know, we have a problem with a war that our people are trying to settle now with Russia and Ukraine. We are not involved in the war monetarily anymore," he said at a Cabinet meeting. "Biden gave away $350 billion like it was candy. That's a massive amount of money and much of it in cash, a lot of it in equipment....

The Christmas tree tradition emerged from the “sacred trees” of Northern European mythology such as Yggdrasil, the giant ash tree at the center of the Norse cosmos that holds all the worlds in its roots and branches. It is said that St. Boniface came upon one such sacred tree during his mission to the Germanic tribes in 723. Upon finding devotees preparing to sacrifice a child to Thor at the “Thunder Oak,” Boniface intervened and miraculously chopped down the tree with one swift swing. He used its wood to build a Christian chapel, and in the spot where the oak...

@SenRandPaul I opposed John Kennedy’s idea to bring in so many Afghan nationals. I told Kennedy it was reckless and dangerous. Ultimately, Kennedy and Biden won, and our country was flooded with unvetted Afghan nationals. This video has the receipts. In 2013, I put forward legislation to suspend visas from high-risk terrorism countries and to require thorough background-check waiting periods for all others, so Americans can be confident our visa system keeps terrorists out In 2015, I also introduced legislation to stop taxpayer-funded benefits for newly arrived refugees from high-risk countries.

Tuesday is a big day for Tennessee, and for the closely divided US House of Representatives. Democrats have been vowing to turn red states blue, and last month’s elections gave them some hopeful signs, thanks largely to revved-up urban voters. This week a special election in Tennessee’s 7th District, pitting GOP military veteran Matt Van Epps against far-left candidate Aftyn Behn, will show them just how far their base can take them. Going by conventional wisdom, this should be a walkover for Van Epps: The district leans Republican by 10 percentage points, and Van Epps’ policy positions echo those of...

US President Donald Trump warned Israel via social media on Monday against destabilizing Syria and its new leadership, shortly before holding a phone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It is very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous State,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, days after a deadly operation by Israeli forces in the south of the country. Trump said he was “very satisfied” with Syria’s current performance under former Islamist rebel President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who made a historic...

Donald Trump’s drive to secure peace in Ukraine must not let Vladimir Putin off the hook for war crimes committed by Russian forces, a top EU official has warned, effectively setting a new red line for a deal. In an interview with POLITICO, Michael McGrath, the European commissioner for justice and democracy, said negotiators must ensure the push for a ceasefire does not result in Russia escaping prosecution. His comments reflect concerns widely held in European capitals that the original American blueprint for a deal included the promise of a “full amnesty for actions committed during the war,” alongside plans...

More than 100 rural hospitals have closed in the United States over the last decade, leaving millions of Americans without access to emergency services, testing, inpatient care, and primary care. While these closures have been on the rise in rural America since the 2008-2009 recession, they’ve increased at an alarming pace over the last few years, including at least 18 that closed or converted to an operating model that excludes inpatient care this year alone. Currently, more than 700 rural hospitals are at risk of closing—with 300 at immediate risk of closing—meaning that this distance is likely to widen even...

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the second, follow-up strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September following a bombshell Washington Post report that claimed he ordered the military to “kill everybody.” Leavitt told reporters at the White House press briefing that Hegseth authorized Adm. Frank Bradley to carry out the second strike, which reportedly killed two people who were hanging onto the burning vessel after an initial strike. “President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting...

“When I have a problem, I call up Marco. He gets it solved,” Donald Trump boasts about his Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. This week, Marco Rubio is putting that reputation to the test. He is the key man on the two major international fronts the United States is currently engaged in, and with two very different roles: in the negotiations over the war in Ukraine, he took the reins to balance out what was initially a clearly pro-Russian proposal and try to push through a peace plan acceptable to Kyiv; in the standoff with Venezuela, he is...

On paper, Lexington County, S.C., and Placer County, Calif., have a lot in common. They’re both big, wealthy, suburban counties with white supermajorities that border on their respective state’s capital cities…But when it comes to how long their residents can count on living, the parallels fall apart. Placer has a Scandinavia-like life expectancy of 82.3 years. In Lexington, the figure is 77.7, a little worse than China’s. Step back and look at a map of life expectancy across the country and the geographic patterns are as dramatic as they are obvious. If you live pretty much anywhere in the contiguous...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing bipartisan scrutiny over his reported order to strike a boat in the Caribbean a second time, killing two survivors who were clinging to the ship’s wreckage on Sept. 2. The Washington Post reported Friday that Hegseth issued an order to “kill everybody” after the initial strike, the first of what is now more than 20 such attacks, did not immediately kill all 11 of the people on board the vessel, leading the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack to order a second strike. Some Democrats and a senior Republican said Sunday the strike was...

An explosive Washington Post report, the subject of so much discussion the past two days, says that, in the first missile strike the Trump Defense Department carried out against operatives of a boat suspected of transporting narcotics on the high seas off Venezuela, two survivors were rendered shipwrecked. As they clung to the wreckage, the U.S. commander ordered a second strike, which killed them. If this happened as described in the Post report, it was, at best, a war crime under federal law. I say “at best” because, as regular readers know, I believe the attacks on these suspected drug...

Gen Z is hopping on planes for more than adventure—they’re doing it to have babies. A growing number of young American parents are choosing to give birth outside the U.S., often in countries with better healthcare, more generous parental leave, and cheaper delivery costs. According to a new survey from Greenback Expat Tax Services, more than one in four Gen Z expats have already given birth abroad—and nearly two-thirds say they’re planning to. Among all U.S. expats surveyed, 54% had already had a child while living abroad. Millennials lead the charge with nearly 3 in 5 reporting overseas births, but...

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett says he will support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon if it is conditioned on the premier’s retirement from politics. “In recent years, the State of Israel has been led into chaos and to the brink of a civil war that threatens the very existence of the state,” Bennett writes on X. “In order to rescue Israel from the chaos, I will support a binding arrangement that includes a respectful retirement from political life alongside the end of the trial,” he says. “That way, we can let it go, unite, and rebuild the...

Thanksgiving weekend ends on Sunday, and still there’s no peace in Ukraine. Donald Trump’s latest attempt to end the war – his 28-point plan – began to fall apart from the moment it mysteriously leaked to various international news outfits last week. As that story landed, Reuters broke some other news: Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, would stand down in January. Kellogg, who represents the more ardently pro-Ukrainian faction of the administration, had clashed repeatedly with Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been engaging in friendly dialogue with Moscow for most of the year. His departure seemed...

Game Over DOGE: US Starts Fiscal 2025 With Record Budget Deficit, Shocking Interest Expense It was back in February, when we explained to Elon Musk why his strategy to shock the US government into spending "efficiency" through DOGE, while noble, is ultimately doomed to wit: "What Musk is doing in trying to streamline the govt is admirable but ultimately it will be Congress that decides the endgame. And there things are as status quo as always." Status quo it was indeed, and it took the world's richest man several months to realize it, and while there has been a heated...

What if Senator Kelly and the other members of Congress making that video about not following illegal orders did not intend it for our military. What if they intended it as a message to their hysterical followers. What if they intended their followers to assume anyone in uniform following Trump's orders were following illegal orders, because what else can Trump do? At this point how could anyone know if that was their intent or not? Wouldn't some of their crazed followers do exactly what that Afghan in DC is alleged to have done, and attack anyone on military duty? At...

Republicans are growing increasingly anxious over a once sleepy special election in Tennessee District 7 next month in a district that President Trump comfortably won by 22 points last year. While the congressional race has historically been a GOP shoo-in, Republicans are alarmed by a recent poll and fearful that an upset could see their majority in the House slip to a zero-vote margin. “I’m very concerned about it. Of course, it’s an off-year election. It’s right after Thanksgiving. A lot of the Republicans are out of town. And I worry about them showing up on Election Day,” Rep. Tim...