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President Trump said Friday he plans to make a “major statement” on Russia early next week — as the Senate considers legislation to force his hand on sanctions after months of threats from the commander-in-chief. “I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,” Trump told NBC News in a phone interview Thursday. “You’ll be seeing things happen,” Trump told a reporter Friday morning on the White House lawn when asked about an overnight Russian drone attack that damaged a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv.

Vladimir Solovyov threatens America

A growing number of young Ukrainians have been unknowingly recruited by Russian forces as unwilling suicide bombers as the Ukraine-Russia War drags on in its third year, the Guardian reported last week. Russian forces have been recruiting Ukrainians, mainly teenagers, to bomb police stations, post offices, or military targets under the guise of odd jobs postings on Telegram as part of an ongoing shadow war. For example, 19-year-old Oleh told the Guardian that he was offered $1,000 to video himself vandalizing a police station in western Ukraine with provided materials. He collected a rucksack from a given exchange point with...

President Trump said Monday his administration would send Ukraine additional weapons after his administration imposed a pause on some shipments to Kyiv. “We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now,” Trump told reporters during a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess,” he added. The Pentagon last week confirmed a decision to halt the delivery of some air defense missiles and munitions to Ukraine, citing concerns...

WASHINGTON—President Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he wasn’t responsible for a halt in weapons shipments to Kyiv, signaling U.S. openness to continuing military aid for Ukraine. Trump informed Zelensky in a Friday phone conversation that he had directed a review of Pentagon munitions stockpiles after the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear sites last month but didn’t order the department to freeze the arms deliveries, according to people briefed on the conversation. The call came shortly after Trump publicly acknowledged he was “very disappointed” and “didn’t make any progress” on an Ukraine peace deal in a separate call Thursday with...

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Dutch and German intelligence agencies have gathered evidence of widespread Russian use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine, including dropping a choking agent from drones to drive soldiers out of trenches so they can be shot, they said on Friday. Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans called for tougher sanctions against Moscow. "The main conclusion is that we can confirm Russia is intensifying its use of chemical weapons," he told Reuters. "This intensification is concerning because it is part of a trend we have been observing for several years now, where Russia's use of chemical weapons in...

Russia's richest people received record dividends in 2024, according to Forbes Russia. The top earner was Alexei Mordashov, who received 201.8 billion rubles in dividends from Severstal. Russia's richest people collected record-high dividends in 2024, even as the country's economy showed clear signs of slowing, according to Forbes Russia on Thursday. Total dividend payouts to the 50 wealthiest Russians reached a record 1.769 trillion rubles, or $22.3 billion, according to the publication. That's a sharp increase from each of the previous two years, when less than 1.4 trillion rubles were distributed. The top earner was steel magnate Alexei Mordashov and...

Former Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Ana Cabrera Reports” that the United States had gone from a democracy to a monarchy under the Trump administration. Cabrera said, “Let’s talk about what we know of that’s happening inside your old building. CNBC reports that Elon Musk’s DOGE team has taken over some of the departments highest officials offices. In fact, they describe it as what’s happening in there rearranging furniture, setting up white noise machines to muffle their voices. DOGE says it’s already terminated roughly $900 million worth of contracts, writing on social media that it’s terminated...

...than Donald Trump.”

As we've just reported, former Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell was the only Republican senator to vote no on RFK Jr's nomination. McConnell may have been motivated this time by his experience as a polio survivor. Kennedy has previously criticised the vaccine, which research shows is safe and effective. It's not the first time McConnell has found himself among a small group of Republicans going against Trump's wishes. He voted no on Trump's pick for the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, whom he said "alarming lapses in judgment" regarding her sympathetic comments to Russia and other statements she's made....

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified documents should be treated “exactly the same way” as they treated former President Donald Trump. The senator made his comments during an interview with Terry Meiners on Kentucky’s NewsRadio 840 WHAS in which he said Attorney General Merrick Garland made the correct decision to appoint Robert Hur as special counsel over mishandled classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president that he kept in his Delaware home.

Former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Thursday that former President Trump is a “proven loser” after a string of Republican election losses in recent years. “He’s fading fast,” Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper Thursday. “He is a proven loser. He cost us the House in ’18, he cost us the White House in ’20, he cost us the Senate again and again.” Ryan said he does not believe Trump will get the party nomination as Republicans begin to focus more on issues like fiscal responsibility and less on personalities. “I think we are moving past Trump,” he added. “I...