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UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative over Trump fears

Feb 16, 2026Center Left

Exclusive: First meeting to be held over domestic payments system aimed at reducing reliance on US networksUK bank bosses will hold their first meeting to establish a national alternative to Visa and Mastercard, amid growing fears over Donald Trump’s ability to turn off US-owned payment systems.The meeting, chaired by Barclays’ UK chief executive, Vim Maru, will take place this Thursday and bring together a group of City funders that will front the costs of a new payments company to keep the UK economy running if problems were to occur. Continue reading...

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‘The second-most good-looking president’: Trump entertains on Usha Vance’s program

WorldNetDaily

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‘The second-most good-looking president’: Trump entertains on Usha Vance’s program

Videotaped Oval Office interview delves into children's books about former commanders in chief

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Melania gives Congress private deadline as she works around Trump's team: report

Raw Story

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Melania gives Congress private deadline as she works around Trump's team: report

First lady Melania Trump gave Congress a private deadline to pass her signature foster care bill, and she is pursuing it largely outside the usual White House channels, according to a new report in Politico. At a bipartisan roundtable with the House Ways and Means Committee in April, the first lady publicly called foster care legislation a "moral imperative." Then, behind closed doors, she set a target, Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) told the outlet: "I want this on Donald's desk by the August recess." The Fostering the Future Act, which expands housing, education and workforce help for young people aging out of foster care, passed the House unanimously.The Senate has not moved it out of committee, and lawmakers are set to leave Washington around Aug. 10. At a White House picnic the day the House passed the bill, both Trumps urged the Senate to hurry. "Hopefully, it will quickly pass in the Senate," the president said. He has not publicly pressed senators since.The deadline reflects a first lady who increasingly operates on her own track. Her office, not the State Department, has led her effort to reunite children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war, negotiating directly with Moscow and Kyiv, the White House said. She has also shown a willingness to diverge from the administration's message. She broke with the White House on Epstein, calling for survivors to testify as the president's team tried to move past the scandal, and last week put her own spin on a Supreme Court ruling her husband celebrated, voicing support for the LGBTQIA+ community.A recent book recounted how she resisted Trump's overhaul of the White House grounds and lost.

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Rare ‘Exeter’ copy of Declaration of Independence discovered in UK

The Hill News

2 hours ago

Rare ‘Exeter’ copy of Declaration of Independence discovered in UK

A rare printing of the Declaration of Independence that was lost for more than 250 years was recovered in London, Britain’s National Archives announced Friday. It is the only known copy of its kind existing outside the U.S. The so-called Exeter Declaration, which was printed in Exeter, N.H., days after the Declaration on Independence was adopted…

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Rare copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives

BBC News

2 hours ago

Rare copy of US Declaration of Independence found by volunteer in UK archives

The newly discovered copy is one of only 11 of its kind in the world.

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Trump announces pardons for pollution violators prosecuted for "fixing their car"

Politics - CBSNews.com

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Trump announces pardons for pollution violators prosecuted for "fixing their car"

CBS News previously reported President Trump was weighing pardons of a slate of people convicted of emissions and clean air-related violations.

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Trump Pardons Six People Pursued for ‘Fixing Their Car’

Bloomberg Politics

2 hours ago

Trump Pardons Six People Pursued for ‘Fixing Their Car’

President Donald Trump pardoned six people who he said were sentenced or in prison for “fixing their car,” a day before the US celebrates 250 years of independence on July 4.

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Sources: Trump likely to pardon pollution violators; weighing clemency for Diddy

Politics - CBSNews.com

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Sources: Trump likely to pardon pollution violators; weighing clemency for Diddy

President Trump hasn't committed to a firm number of people who will receive clemency — he's scheduled to have a meeting on pardons Friday afternoon, sources said.

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Fox host warns Trump will pay for his 'breathtaking' corruption

Alternet.org

2 hours ago

Fox host warns Trump will pay for his 'breathtaking' corruption

On Friday, Fox News host and political analyst Brit Hume offered a prediction that President Donald Trump is unlikely to appreciate. If the Democrats come out ahead in the midterms, the chief executive could find himself paying big for his "breathtaking" crypto corruption. Hume's forecast comes in the wake of the president's 2025 financial disclosures earlier in the week, which revealed that his family raked in a shocking $1 billion from its cryptocurrency ventures while Daddy Trump regulated the market. As Mediate explains, "The filing reported roughly $500 million in income from World Liberty Financial, the crypto company founded with his sons Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Barron Trump, along with approximately $635 million from sales of the $TRUMP meme coin through CIC Digital LLC. The disclosure also detailed hundreds of millions of dollars in income from Trump’s real estate holdings and millions more from licensing deals and other business ventures. The president made more than $2 billion overall."Another Fox News host, John Roberts, called the numbers "eye-popping," prompting Hume to respond, "It is, John, and I think the right word for this is unseemly, for a president to profit while in office.”He continued, "Now, it’s not fair to say that he profited from the office, although, you know, that’s surely gonna be subject to investigation — particularly if the Democrats get control of one or both branches of Congress. But, if you wanted seemliness in the White House, Donald Trump was not your man, and if you wanted a guy that wasn’t very rich in the White House, he wasn’t your man for that either. The fact is that he’s a very rich guy, and when you hold the kind of holdings he has, you do get richer. This amount from crypto seems breathtaking, but as the point was made by you and [Treasury Secretary] Scott Bessent, not illegal. So, the people that don’t like Trump won’t like this. The people that do like Trump won’t care very much, in my judgement."Hume is only partly true in regards to that last assertion. While much of MAGA has remained loyal to the president regardless of his financial improprieties, he's had pushback from some high-profile supporters. The New York Post, for example, which is typically complimentary toward Trump, declared that a recent story involving his sons' profiting off a Kazakhstan mining deal their father struck "stinks to high heaven." According to the Post, "The Lutnick [sons of Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick] and Trump boys have been sloshing around in the muck since their dads came to power 18 months ago. They’ve profited handsomely from cryptocurrency deals while the government their fathers control were setting crypto policy.”

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UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative over Trump fears

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UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative over Trump fears

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