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 My son has narrated the last book I wrote. Please consider listening to it and encouraging others to do so too. (Click HERE) World & Nation Mike Waltz to exit Trump administration weeks after Signal chat fiasco Mike Waltz takes responsibility for chat revealing sensitive information  Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump's national security advisor, is set to leave his White House post amid continued fallout weeks after he accidentally invited a journalist into a chat between top national security officials discussing plans for Yemen airstrikes. A source familiar with the situation on May 1 confirmed Waltz' exit, as well as deputy national security advisor Alex Wong. Trump had publicly stood by Waltz after his national security adviser and other members of the chat vigorously denied sharing any classified war plans on the publicly available app Signal. The chat was revealed when Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, published a March 24 story detailing how Waltz accidentally invited him into the communications. US Has Reached Out to China to Talk Tariffs, State Media Says  The United States has approached China seeking talks over President Donald Trump's 145% tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state media said on Thursday, the latest report of possible moves towards negotiations on the levies. "The U.S. has proactively reached out to China through multiple channels, hoping to hold discussions on the tariff issue," Yuyuan Tantian said in a post published on its official Weibo social media account, citing anonymous sources. Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, on Wednesday said: "as far as I know, there have been no consultations or negotiations between China and the U.S. on tariffs."
Another American ally just issued an economic warning because of the trade war  Another day, another piece of evidence that President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with friends and foes is hurting the global economy. Today: Japan’s central bank cut its economic growth forecast for the country in half. The Bank of Japan on Thursday lowered its expectations for 2025 gross domestic product growth to an anemic 0.5%, down from the previous projection of +1.1%, made in January. It also cut its growth forecast for next year to 0.7%, down from the previous projection of +1.0%. “Japan’s economic growth is likely to moderate, as trade and other policies in each jurisdiction lead to a slowdown in overseas economies and to a decline in domestic corporate profits and other factors,” Japan’s central bank said in a statement. The bank noted, however, that the on-again, off-again trade war has clouded its outlook. Russia's Medvedev: Ukraine Pays US Aid With Minerals  Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that the signing of a minerals deal between Ukraine and the United States meant President Donald Trump had forced Kyiv to pay for future U.S. military aid. The deal, signed in Washington on Wednesday, will give the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in Ukraine's reconstruction. The Kyiv Post, citing diplomatic sources, said the Trump administration had also told Congress on Wednesday of its intention to green-light the export of defense-related products to Ukraine through direct commercial sales of $50 million or more, the first step of its kind since Trump's White House return Europe should be thanking Trump for taking Ukraine’s rare earth minerals  The iconic picture of Presidents Trump and Zelensky sat face to face in the Vatican discussing only they know what, has in a matter of only days materialised into Ukraine’s long-term security saviour. First things first. The US-Ukraine trade deal was months in the making, and has suffered several public missteps along the way – most notably during Trump and Vance’s shameful and very public dressing down of Zelensky in February to the world’s press gallery. The diplomatic manoeuvring and back-door channels utilised since then has been nothing short of impressive, as both sides privately wanted to get a deal quickly back on the table. Now as with all deals of this significance, the devil really will be in the detail. What we do know however is that this is by no means an official military-security deal for Ukraine. However, what it most certainly does provide is a blueprint for long-term US economic interdependence with a sovereign, free, and independent Ukrainian state. That should be seen as a net win regardless, especially when the optics coming out of Washington have been at times incredibly poor to say the least. Bill Belichick’s daughter-in-law shades Jordon Hudson as CBS interview drama grows  The next Belichick family reunion could get awkward. Bill Belichick’s daughter-in-law weighed in on the ongoing drama involving his 24-year-old girlfriend Jordan Hudson, the famed football coach and his “CBS Sunday Morning” interview. Jennifer Schmitt, the wife of Belichick’s son Stephen, seemed to throw shade at Hudson over her decision to interrupt CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil’s question to Belichick about how the couple met. The interview and the response have led to plenty of criticism of Hudson and Belichick, though some have come out to support the pair, including Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski during their Wednesday episode of their “Dudes on Dudes” podcast. Hunter Biden abruptly drops lawsuit against IRS — a move the whistleblowers say shows ‘everything you need to know’  Hunter Biden abruptly dropped his lawsuit Wednesday against two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers who alleged a wide-ranging cover-up in the Department of Justice to stonewall the tax fraud investigation into him. The Biden scion had slapped a lawsuit against the two whistleblowers in 2023, alleging that they “targeted and sought to embarrass Mr. Biden via public statements to the media in which they and their representatives disclosed confidential information about a private citizen’s tax matters.” Without detailing a specific reason why, the scandal-scarred 55-year-old voluntarily moved to dismiss his lawsuit against Gary Shapley, who was an IRS supervisory special agent at the time in question, and Joe Ziegler, who was an agent. “His voluntary dismissal of the case tells you everything you need to know about who was right and who was wrong.” White House vows to implement 'system of merit' in US, dismantle DEI 'strangulation' Trump's administration has gutted DEI programs across the US  White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller touted President Donald Trump's efforts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs on Thursday. Miller appeared alongside White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt during a Thursday morning briefing, declaring that the administration is bringing a "system of merit" back to the U.S. "This administration is not going to let our society devolve into communist, woke, DEI strangulation," Miller said. "We are going to have a system of merit." "It's not just a social and cultural issue, it's an economic issue. When you hire, retain and recruit based on merit as President Trump has directed, you advance innovation, you advance growth, you advance investment, you advance job creation," he continued. Democrat gun control push persists with reintroduction of assault weapons ban 'This is not about the Second Amendment. This is about saving lives,' Sen. Alex Padilla asserted.  U.S. lawmakers are continuing to advocate for gun control by pushing an assault weapons ban proposal. "It shall be unlawful for a person to import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a semiautomatic assault weapon," the Assault Weapons Ban of 2025 stipulates — it also includes the same prohibition pertaining to "a large capacity ammunition feeding device." But the measure would grandfather in those who currently own such items. The text indicates that the prohibitions "shall not apply to the possession, sale, or transfer of any semiautomatic assault weapon otherwise lawfully possessed under Federal law on the date of enactment of the Assault Weapons Ban of 2025" or "to the possession of any large capacity ammunition feeding device otherwise lawfully possessed on or before the date of enactment of the Assault Weapons Ban of 2025." Wisconsin judge accused of obstructing ICE could face years in prison, DOJ has 'upper hand': former prosecutor Judge Hannah Dugan could go to prison for five years if convicted, a former prosecutor said  Wisconsin judge reportedly threatens to not hold court in protest of Judge Hannah Dugan's arrest A Milwaukee, Wisconsin judge could face years in prison for allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a former federal prosecutor said. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, 65, was arrested by the FBI and charged with obstruction of proceedings before a department or agency of the United States on Friday. She allegedly whisked away a previously-deported illegal immigrant and his attorney from her courthouse in order to stop ICE from arresting him. She was also charged with concealing an individual to prevent discovery and arrest. "It's five years if the individual is wanted for a felony, and it's one year if they're wanted for a misdemeanor," attorney Neama Rahmani told Fox News Digital this week. "So it's five years." Harvard finally admits in its Oct. 7 report that woke politics have wrecked the school Harvard University has admitted the ugly truth: The left’s long march through its faculty and administration has borne poisonous fruit in the form of blazing Jew-hatred and the overall ruin of its campus climate and curricula. Don’t take our word for it: Just read the elite Ivy’s own report on the Tentifada that sprang up in support of Hamas after Oct. 7. The committee tasked with looking into this antisemitic conflagration detailed how over decades what began as a tense, even rancorous zone of disagreement on campus — specifically, over Israel’s efforts to defend itself from terrorist aggression and the national aims of various Palestinian political factions — changed into an “attempt by student activists to drive Israeli students (and Jewish students who feel connected to Israel) out of student life.” This process was in train well before Oct. 7, and results (to use the words of a faculty member the report cautiously cites) from a “general shift of power from regular faculty and to para-academic administrators” that “has played an outsized role in the politicization and radicalization of academia and its intellectual and reputational decline.” When it comes to ID, it’s time to get REAL REAL ID requirements are a small price to pay for safer skies Congress passed the REAL ID Act in 2005, a few years after the 9/11 attacks. The subsequent 9/11 Commission Report revealed many weaknesses in our national security, including the fact that hijackers Khalid Al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi got California drivers’ licenses through a facilitator in San Diego. They probably used those to board the American Airlines plane they crashed into the Pentagon, killing 189 people. International and domestic criminals and terrorists love "breeder documents" (papers issued based on low evidence), which they can use to get better identification documents (IDs) like a passport, birth certificate, and Social Security card. That’s why for air travel and other serious business, all passengers should have identification based on information that has been verified, so we know who they really are. After two decades of the government kicking the can down the road with one excuse after another, the deadline for needing a REAL ID to catch a domestic flight is up on May 7. This time, we need to keep it. |
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