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Oct 20, 2025 - World

Donald Trump’s boast that he has used his influence to convince India to stop buying oil from Russia was ridiculed on MSNBC on Monday as a big deal about a topic of little importance at the moment.Incorporating both his trade war with his attempts to get Russia to end its war on Ukraine, the president boasted, “I spoke with Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi of India, and he said he's not going to be doing the Russian oil thing.”Appearing on “Morning Joe,“ Yale School of Management Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a former adviser to Trump as wall as Presidents Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, claimed oil prices are nothing special at the moment — and that Russian President Vladamir Putin is likely not interested in selling right now.Speaking with the hosts, Sonnenfeld said that Trump was using the announcement to cover for his administration’s bumbling.“Frankly, what's happening with India, finally, is that Trump's providing a cover basically for failure, getting trade talks with India” he remarked“India says, ‘Oh, we're going to stop buying Russian oil.’ Who cares? Who cares?” he exclaimed. “Russian oil, and the price was called Urals oil is the same price right now as WTI [West Texas Intermediate}, the rest of the world's oil. They're not making any sacrifice.”“It's they're acting like they're giving something up and in fact, Putin would like to produce less oil because it's so cheap right now. He's not making money on it,” he pointed out. - YouTube youtu.be

Oct 19, 2025 - World

The shaky Gaza ceasefire further frayed on Sunday as Israel launched at least 20 airstrikes and blocked all aid delivery in the obliterated Palestinian exclave, while Hamas rejected US allegations that it is preparing to violate the tenuous truce.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it has “now begun a wave of strikes” in southern Gaza “following a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement earlier today” by Hamas, whose fighters are accused of killing two Israeli occupation troops and wounding three others in Rafah on Sunday morning.Gaza officials said that at least 51 Palestinians, including numerous children, were killed across the strip on Sunday. Attacks include but are not limited to a double-tap drone and missile strike on a café west of Deir al-Balah that killed five people, all of them reportedly civilians; an airstrike on a the al-Bureij refugee camp that killed four civilians; an airstrike on the Sardi school that killed four displaced civilians; artillery shelling that killed six civilians on al-Zawaida Beach; and the bombing of a building housing journalists in al-Zawaida that killed two civilians.The US State Department on Saturday accused Hamas of planning an attack on Palestinian civilians in Gaza “in grave violation of the ceasefire.” Hamas has been battling Israeli-backed criminal gangs that oppose its longtime rule of Gaza.In a statement Sunday, Hamas slammed the US allegations as lies that “fully align with the misleading Israeli propaganda and provide cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes and organized aggression” against Palestinians.Hamas urged the US to “stop repeating the occupation’s misleading narrative and to focus on curbing its repeated violations of the ceasefire agreement.”According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel has violated the nine-day ceasefire at least 48 times, including by bombing residential areas and killing civilians approaching the so-called “yellow line” beyond which Israeli forces withdrew in accordance with the truce.Scores of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombs and bullets since the ceasefire took effect on October 10.On Friday, Israeli forces massacred 11 members of a Palestinian family attempting to return by bus to their home in Gaza City.In response to what it said were Hamas ceasefire violations, Israel on Sunday closed off crossing points into Gaza, blocking the entry of desperately needed humanitarian aid into the strip, where famine conditions persist due to the siege imposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who are both fugitives from the International Criminal Court—at the start of the genocidal war two years ago.Amjad Al-Shawwa, who heads the Network of Civil Society Organizations in Gaza, warned Sunday that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, especially pregnant women and children, are suffering severe malnutrition. At least hundreds of Gazans have died of malnutrition and related causes.A senior Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Guardian that “round-the-clock” talks were under way to salvage the ceasefire.Responding to the renewed Israeli bombing, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said: “Since the start of the ceasefire, the Netanyahu regime has been itching to fully restart the genocide in Gaza.”:The cruel and unnecessary mass bombing of civilians across Gaza constitutes a blatant violation of President [Donald] Trump’s ceasefire agreement and a resumption of the genocide,“ CAIR added. ”President Trump must rein in the Israeli occupation forces and stop sending American weapons and American taxpayer dollars to fund Israel’s war machine.“

Oct 19, 2025 - World

In a private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, President Donald Trump urged him to concede a significant amount of territory to Russia or face destruction, a meeting that devolved into a “shouting match” with Trump “cursing all the time,” according to insiders who spoke with the Financial Times in its report Sunday.“If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you,” Trump reportedly told Zelenskyy in the closed-door meeting, according to who the Financial Times described as a “European official with knowledge of the meeting,” speaking with the outlet on the condition of anonymity.According to the insiders who spoke with the Financial Times, Trump “threw Ukraine’s maps of the battlefield” during the tense meeting, urging Zelenskyy to surrender parts of the eastern Donbas region which still remain under Ukrainian control. The concession Trump proposed would be in exchange for Russia ceding small regions near the southern and southeastern Ukrainian cities of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, respectively – the former now under Ukrainian control and the latter under Russian control.But for some Ukrainian officials, surrendering the Donbas region was a nonstarter.“To give [the Donbas] to Russia without a fight is unacceptable for Ukrainian society, and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin knows that,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, who chairs the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, speaking with the Financial Times.An unnamed official told the outlet that Zelenskyy was “very negative” following the meeting, while noting that European leaders were “not optimistic but pragmatic with planning next steps.”

Oct 18, 2025 - World

Donald Trump's administration on Saturday shocked observers with a decision not to arrest two suspected peddlers of fentanyl.Trump over the weekend took the time to brag about a military strike, saying it was an "honor" while announcing that two were killed in the strike on a submarine. The New York Times also released a report focusing on the two survivors of the strike on the purported drug vessel, who were not arrested and were instead reportedly returned to their home countries.It's that report that baffled political and international law experts.Conservative attorney and anti-Trump activist George Conway said Saturday, "This is essentially a confession by administration that it committed murder."Immigration policy expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick chimed in: "So the people on these boats are 'terrorists' who can be killed without any due process, but if they don’t die in the initial strike, they just get released and go home with a warning? Seriously?"Former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor said, "So the administration's argument is that these men are dangerous narco-terrorists waging war against the US and thus deserved to be executed, but also that the US should send them home rather than to try prosecute them in court. Makes sense."Political science professor Christopher Clary also added, "Enough evidence to try and kill them but not enough evidence to prosecute… what are we doing here exactly?"Political attorney Robert Kelner also weighed in, saying, "This makes no sense, if we are supposed to believe this was a drug trafficking ship and the attack on the ship was legal.""If that were so, why wouldn’t we detain the evil drug traffickers and prosecute them?" Kelner asked. "Congress needs to exercise its oversight authority. And reporters need to dig into this story."

Oct 18, 2025 - World

Donald Trump's administration took a "sharp break" from its typical handling of military strike cases by choosing not to prosecute two survivors of an attack on a foreign suspected drug smuggling boat, according to the New York Times.Trump over the weekend took the time to brag about the military strike, saying it was an "honor" while announcing that two were killed in the strike. The Times also released a report focusing on the two survivors, who were not arrested."The Trump administration has decided to repatriate two survivors of a deadly U.S. strike this week on suspected drug runners in the Caribbean Sea rather than prosecute them or hold them in military detention, people with knowledge of the matter said on Saturday," according to the report. "The men who survived were being returned to their home countries, Colombia and Ecuador, the people with knowledge of the matter said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational and diplomatic matters. It was not clear if the government of either nation would prosecute the men upon their return, or simply release them."The report continues:"President Trump has previously described people aboard suspected drug-smuggling boats, which the United States has targeted in several deadly airstrikes since early September, as 'unlawful combatants.' He has claimed the authority, widely disputed by legal experts, to summarily kill such suspects in military strikes as if they were enemy soldiers in a war."According to the Times report, the move "was a sharp break from the traditional handling of maritime smuggling, in which the Coast Guard would intercept boats and arrest people if suspicions proved accurate."Read the article here.