Author: Robert Jones
CNN — A dangerous fault line is opening as Donald Trump rushes to end the war in Ukraine. The US president craves an early political triumph to fuel his claims to a Nobel Peace Prize. But an equitable end to the conflict may defy a quick fix since it poses existential issues for Ukraine and European security. This tension was exacerbated by the president’s decision to exclude officials from Kyiv and European powers from US-Russia talks that took place in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The meeting lasted more than four hours and was described by a member of Moscow’s negotiating…
A foreign service worker whose pregnant wife allegedly was denied emergency medical transport while stationed abroad has filed an affidavit in federal court against the Trump administration, claiming its “rushed, haphazard and cruel” push to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development has placed the mother and unborn daughter at grave risk.The worker, who identified themselves only as “Terry Doe” in a filing that’s part of a larger case in federal court in Washington, D.C., charges that the U.S. government twice denied previously approved medical transport orders for the mother, who is 31-weeks pregnant. “Each day has brought a new…
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The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency have put Democrats in a frustrating bind.He’s thrown so much at them (and at the nation), that they’re having serious trouble figuring out what to respond to — let alone how. He’s signed dozens of executive orders; attempted serious power grabs and overhauls of the government; and signed controversial legislation. And in the process, he’s further divided his opposition, as the Democrats undergo an identity crisis that ramped up after Kamala Harris’s loss.Immigration policy is a prime example of this struggle: Long before Harris became their nominee, the party was debating…
They arrived at the United States border from around the world, hoping to seek asylum. Instead, they were detained, shackled and flown by the U.S. military to a faraway country, Panama.They were stripped of their passports and most of their cellphones, they said, and then locked in a hotel, barred from seeing lawyers and told they would soon be sent to a makeshift camp near the Panamanian jungle.At the hotel, at least one person tried to commit suicide, according to several migrants. Another broke his leg trying to escape. A third sent a plaintive missive from a hidden cellphone: “Only…
Former Department of Justice (DOJ) special counsel Jack Smith’s disclosure that he received $140,000 in pro bono legal services from a Washington, D.C., law firm before he resigned last month has raised eyebrows across social media, including from U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, on Friday.Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Justice via online email form and Covington & Burling via email for comment.Why It MattersSmith was appointed to oversee two criminal investigations into President Donald Trump. One focused on Trump’s alleged role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and another looked into alleged mishandling of…
The GOP-controlled Senate voted Thursday to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, to lead the country’s most powerful health care agency. Kennedy was confirmed as health and human services secretary on a mostly party-line vote of 52-48. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., broke ranks on yet another of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, joining all Democrats in opposition.McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said Kennedy had a “record of trafficking in dangerous conspiracy theories and eroding trust in public health institutions.””Mr. Kennedy failed to prove he is the best possible person to lead America’s largest health agency,” McConnell said in…
United States President Donald Trump’s plan to cut a deal with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over Ukraine and his administration’s new approach to transatlantic ties have left European leaders concerned. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday held a meeting with a Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. The meeting in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh comes after Trump spoke to Putin last week and agreed to hold peace talks to end the three-year conflict without involving his European allies. Trump also said that he might meet Putin…
CNN — American Kalob Byers, 28, who was recently arrested in Russia, has been released after several days in detention, according to a senior Trump administration official. Byers, who was arrested at a Russian airport 10 days ago, was freed only hours before talks between senior US and Russian officials over the war in Ukraine were set to commence in Saudi Arabia. As the Associated Press earlier reported, Byers was detained on February 7 at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after customs officials allegedly found cannabis-laced marmalade in his baggage. According to media reports, Byers had traveled from Istanbul with his Russian…
“This is simply the end.”That was the five-word message that Rick Huganir, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, received from a colleague just before 6 p.m. two Fridays ago, with news that would send a wave of panic through the scientific community.When Huganir clicked on the link in the email, from fellow JHU neuroscientist Alex Kolodkin, he saw a new National Institutes of Health policy designed to slash federal spending on the indirect costs that keep universities and research institutes operating, including for new equipment, maintenance, utilities and support staff. “Am I reading this right 15%??” Huganir wrote…