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Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that President Donald Trump should not accept a jet from Qatar to use as the next Air Force One. Pence said, “First, we’ve got to remember who Qatar is. We’ve got a military base there. I have members of our immediate family that have deployed to the region. But Qatar has a long history of playing both sides. They support Hamas. They supported Al Qaeda. Qatar has actually financed pro-Hamas protests on American campuses across the United States.” Host Kristen Welker said, “So you are saying President Trump...

What are the origins of “Trump Derangement Syndrome”? House Republicans would like scientists to find out. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) introduced a bill directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct or support research to “advance the understanding” of the phenomenon characterized by “intense emotional or cognitive reactions” to President Donald Trump. The bill, titled the “Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) Research Act of 2025,” says “early documented references” emerged during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including “certain media coverage amplifying polarized responses” to his rhetoric. However, the bill notes that its “precise origins remain understudied.” One of the research objectives...

Board members who oversee the California high-speed rail project raised concerns over the financial commitments. Rail CEO says project could take roughly 20 years to complete if private sector can be utilized. As California’s High-Speed Rail Authority awaits word from the Trump administration over its future support for the train, leaders who oversee the project sounded the alarm about its financial viability.The authority’s board of directors voted Thursday to approve contracts for the development of Central Valley station designs and to solicit and approve construction bids for the Fresno station. Ahead of the votes, board member James Ghielmetti raised concerns...

Agreement between the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and German company Diehl Defence paves the way for large industrial projects Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the German company Diehl Defence, which produces IRIS-T systems and is "an important part of Ukraine's air defense shield." According to the minister, the signed agreement paves the way for large industrial projects that will strengthen the capabilities of Ukrainian air defense. In addition, the memorandum provides for a threefold increase in the supply of missiles and air defense systems, Umerov noted. IRIS-T is a medium-range...

Come here for the latest news on how the so-called “energy transition” is grinding to a halt. No amount of government handouts can make this ridiculously uneconomic fantasy work. My last post on the subject, on July 20, reported on the collapse of a large “green hydrogen” project in Australia, with the stated loss of an investment of about $2 billion (Australian) (equivalent to about $1.3 billion U.S.). It seems that that one was just the tip of the iceberg. Today’s Wall Street Journal has a substantial roundup of the financial status of a half-dozen or so so-called “clean fuel”...

The international rating agency S&P Global lowered the long-term and short-term credit ratings of Ukraine in foreign currency to the level of "selective default" - from CC/C to SD/SD - due to the missed payment of Eurobonds on August 1 against the background of debt restructuring. "We understand that the government has decided to suspend bond payments pending restructuring. To that end, the government has not made a coupon payment on its 2026 Eurobonds on August 1, 2024, when payment was due, and we do not expect payments during the bonds' contractual grace period of 10 business days," S&P said...

Today, We Received a Decision – the U.S. Assistance, Which Will Be Felt by Both the Warriors on the Frontline, and the Cities and Villages Suffering from Russian Terror – Address by the President 20 April 2024 - 21:30 Dear Ukrainians! From early morning today, various regions of our country have been experiencing air alerts and Russian strikes. From the east to the south... Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk regions, Kherson and the region, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions. Missiles, drone strikes, artillery. There is a lot of destruction — houses, port infrastructure, and energy facilities. There are casualties and,...

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal called on the House to approve further funding for his nation, arguing it is needed to support Ukraine’s war losses and guarantee a win against Russia. “We hope that this week, [the] House will support one of the drafts, no matter for us which one. We need support for yesterday, not for today or tomorrow, for yesterday,” Shmyhal said Thursday during an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. INTERNATIONAL Ukrainian PM stresses urgency of aid: ‘We need support for yesterday, not today’ BY MIRANDA NAZZARO - 04/18/24 3:39 PM ET SHARE POST Video Player is loading....

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Current and former staff at Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research, gave a scathing assessment of its leadership, fiscal management and inability to meet goals, in Thursday's student newspaper. "The Center has very, very much failed to deliver on its promise. It’s been a colossal waste of millions of dollars," Spencer Piston told the student newspaper, The Daily Free Press. Piston is an associate professor of political science, who works as the faculty lead in the Policy office at the Center for Antiracist Research "CAR." Staff and faculty spoke out after CAR recently laid off at least 15-20 employees. Boston...

The latest report from the California High-Speed Rail Authority projects costs for the initial segment at $35 billion, which exceeds secured funding by $10 billion. Other segments of the system are likely to have their projected costs increase, too. The state hopes it will get more federal aid.

Ukraine needs from 40 to 48 billion US dollars in financing to support the economy in 2023, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.She also noted that the IMF is working on a program with Ukraine and supports it in conducting a “war economy”. The work is being carried out jointly with the USA and the EU.The IMF chief previously described the invasion of Ukraine as the “single most important negative factor” for the economy in 2022.

MacGregor: Up until this time at night we have had freezing but during the day it has gone back up to 40 even 50 degrees. It has to drop below freezing and stay that way for at least two weeks. So if it is now below freezing and stays that way you can do the math. Your looking for something happening no earlier than the 10th; probably no later than the 19th of December. And you're talking about concentrations of Russian troops all the way around the country. We've accounted now formally, these are people who sit in front of...

First class stamps would cost three cents more and mailing a postcard would increase by four cents. The agency is also looking to increase fees for P.O. box rentals, money orders, and insurance. The governors of the U.S. Postal Service already approved these hikes and the postal regulatory commission will review the proposal. If approved, the changes will take effect in January.

They thought they were doing a renovation, not an exorcism. The house had other ideas We walked into the house for the first time on an impeccable autumn afternoon, the kind where the light takes on the hue of burnished gold. It was October of 2009, and we were looking at homes in a small, appealing town in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. The place had been staged for our visit, of course, but the red and burnt-yellow leaves falling from an old maple tree in the backyard twirled and waltzed with an unpremeditated perfection. There was a huge hearth and a...

In a striking indication of the American right’s increasingly skeptical view of costly foreign interventionism, the Heritage Foundation took an aggressive stance against the $40 billion aid package approved by Congress earlier this month. In a May 10 statement ahead of the House vote, Heritage executive director Jessica Anderson said, “This proposed Ukraine aid package takes money away from the priorities of the American people and recklessly sends our taxpayer dollars to a foreign nation without any accountability. America is struggling with record-setting inflation, debt, a porous border, crime and energy depletion yet progressives in Washington are prioritizing a $40...

The aging Queen Mary could cost the city of Long Beach up to $175 million to preserve and maintain over the next 25 years but it could cost even more — up to $190 million — to recycle for scrap or sink into the ocean. Docked on the city’s shore since 1967, the former ocean liner has long been a challenge to operate. A 2017 study recommended that as much as $289 million worth of renovations and upgrades were needed to keep parts of the ship from flooding. According to documents filed recently in Bankruptcy Court, the Queen Mary needs...

When we checked in with Newsweek last week, the magazine had just published a news article critical of the magazine’s owners. That article only saw the light of day after a number of reporters and editors threatened to quit if it were spiked. It came after two top editors were fired and a raid based on an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney. Today, the Daily Beast reports the struggling magazine is unable to pay its rent and may face eviction. Guardian Life Insurance, the sub-landlord for the company’s downtown Manhattan office, informed International Business Times Inc. in late November...

I knew there was something fishy in the Vatican's talking points in Medjugorje They are taking the position that the Blessed Mother likely appeared in Medjugorje seven times but following those appearances, the 'seers' have been lying. I think that's very generous. It's inconsistent with the Blessed Mother's nature to choose to appear to people whom she knew would lie about the messages she conveyed to them. I kept asking myself why on earth their solution to this mess was to set up shop parallel to the frauds and crooks. What's next? Setting up an office in pope Michael's "see"?...

The United Nations needs $4.4 billion by the end of March to prevent catastrophic hunger and famine in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, yet just $90 million has been collected so far, Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday. With over 20 million people at risk of starvation over the next six months and famine already declared in parts of South Sudan, “we are facing a tragedy,” Guterres said. “We must avoid it becoming a catastrophe.” Convening reporters for a briefing at the U.N. headquarters, Guterres amplified concerns that U.N. officials and humanitarian groups have expressed in recent weeks about the...