Singapore’s foreign minister held talks with a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a rare visit to Pyongyang, urging the isolated state to keep channels for dialogue open with the outside world.
The official DNC X account drew backlash for posting a profanity-laden response to Trump policy advisor Stephen Miller on social media Wednesday.
The Democratic Party issued a foul-mouthed insult to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller after he called Texas Senate candidate James Talarico 'transgender.'
Several of President Trump's top political advisers are joining Rep. Mike Collins' campaign in the Georgia Senate race, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The hires provide the clearest indication yet that Trump may be leaning towards endorsing Collins ahead of his June 16 primary runoff against former University of Tennessee head football coach Derek Dooley. The winner will challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in November.Zoom in: Trump 2024 adviser Tony Fabrizio has been tapped to serve as Collins' pollster and senior strategist.Trump campaign chief data strategist Tim Saler will serve in the same capacity for Collins.Chip Englander, who was Trump's battleground states' strategist, will be general consultant.Between the lines: Trump is not always predictable in who he supports.Even though Several of Trump's top strategists worked for Texas Sen. John Cornyn, Trump ended up endorsing Cornyn's primary opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.By the numbers: Collins received 41% in last week's primary, but fell short of the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff against Dooley, who finished second with 30%.The intrigue: Should Trump endorse Collins, it could create a proxy fight against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who is supporting Dooley.Trump endorsed Kemp in 2018, but then turned on the governor after he refused to help overturn Trump's 2020 election defeat in the state. The president supported a 2022 primary challenge to Kemp, which the governor beat back easily.Trump attacked Kemp during the 2024 campaign, alarming Republicans who argued that the president needed the support of the popular governor to win the state.Trump and Kemp's relationship has since warmed. Shortly after his 2025 inauguration, Trump praised Kemp at a Republican Governors Association meeting.
A Reuters photographer Evan Vucci zeroed in on a Trump Cabinet secretary's notes scribbled with a message to himself. "Resilience," read the top of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's notes during an eventful meeting on Wednesday. Bessent was sitting in a meeting that featured Trump threatening to bomb U.S. allies and Department of Homeland Security Sec. Markwayne Mullin saying Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) deserved to be pepper-sprayed. The close-up of Bessent's jottings showed a few uplifting reminders for the Cabinet secretary. "Prosperity" was the other message he had for himself. "Operation Economic Fury," an economic sanctions campaign against Iran, also appeared with an upward arrow next to it. In the middle of the writing pad, Bessent wrote "Just in Time" with a check mark next to it. Below that, he put "Just in Case," with "resilience" written just underneath it.
Democratic Sen. Andy Kim (N.J.) fired back at Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday, after the latter slammed the senator for attending a protest outside of a migrant detention facility in the Garden State. During Wednesday’s cabinet meeting at the White House, Mullin said that Kim “complained” about being hit by pepper ball spray at…
Donald Trump threatened to bomb a key US ally in the Middle East if they don't 'behave' while responding to a question about who will control the Strait of Hormuz.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Tuesday the Ebola outbreak in Congo risks becoming one of the “deadliest on record” if global health groups don’t prioritize containing the viral disease. The global nongovernmental organization (NGO) said the outbreak is spreading faster than the response as Congo and Uganda have already documented more than 900 suspected…
As Israel launched a new bombardment of Lebanon on Tuesday, its far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, suggested that it was trying to derail ongoing peace negotiations between US President Donald Trump and Iran.During a press briefing on Tuesday, the influential politician railed against the possibility of a deal to end the war as it neared the three-month mark and said the whole Israeli Cabinet was in agreement.“I know that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and all of us members of the Cabinet... as the government of Israel, cannot allow this to happen,” Ben-Gvir said in Hebrew. “This is an agreement that can harm the state of Israel, and we will not allow this to happen.”Ben-Gvir’s remarks came as Trump engaged in what he has suggested was another promising round of ceasefire talks with the Iranians—talks that did not include Israel.Despite its foreign ministry condemning recent US attacks as signs of “bad faith” and “definitive violations” of the ceasefire on Tuesday, Iran has not yet pulled away from the table.Citing Iranian state TV, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Tehran has received an unofficial framework from the US that would restore commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels for a month in exchange for the US withdrawing troops from Iran’s vicinity and lifting its naval blockade. The US has disputed this account.Trump has previously attempted to force Iran to accept major concessions on its nuclear program upfront, but nuclear-related talks appear to have been shifted to future negotiations.While it has not been at the center of the latest round of negotiations, Iran still considers ending Israel’s assault on Lebanon to be an essential part of a durable peace.As it has during previous peace negotiations between Iran and the US, Israel launched another major bombardment against Lebanon on Tuesday, violating the 45-day ceasefire that went into effect last month.Israeli forces conducted more than 120 airstrikes across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley against what they said were Hezbollah targets, according to The Guardian, as Netanyahu said Israel would “intensify” its military campaign.According to Lebanon’s health ministry, 31 people were killed, and 40 were wounded. In the southern town of Burj al-Shamali, 14 people were killed, including two children and three women, the ministry said.Since Israel’s offensive began in early March, more than 3,200 people have been killed and over 9,700 wounded, according to the ministry. More than 600 people have been killed since the April truce began.Sources also told Reuters that Israel had expanded its occupation of southern Lebanon, past its so-called “security zone.” Israeli forces ordered the residents of dozens of Lebanese villages not to return to their homes in the occupation zone, which Israel is trying to expand to between 5 and 10 kilometers inside Lebanon.In what Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has described as a renewal of its “Gaza model,” Israel had demolished or damaged more than 40,000 homes in southern Lebanon before last month’s truce went into effect, though destruction has continued since then. More than 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced as a result of forced evacuation orders and bombardments by Israel.Hezbollah has responded on Tuesday with drone attacks on Israel, which it had already been launching for weeks in response to what it said were persistent ceasefire violations.Another far-right Israeli Cabinet member, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel should respond to each drone by destroying 10 buildings in Beirut. If there are no buildings left in Beirut, he said, Israel should expand the demolitions to other areas such as Tyre, Sidon, and the Bekaa Valley.Ben-Gvir, meanwhile, said on Tuesday that Israel should “cut off the electricity in Lebanon,” “occupy” the area up to the Zahrani River, and “return to a massive war.”The timing of Israel’s renewed assault on Lebanon has been met with accusations that it is attempting to sabotage ceasefire talks between the US and Iran.Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, a former diplomat with the Israeli Foreign Ministry who has since become a prominent critic of the country, said that by moving deeper into Lebanon, Israel was “moving to bury not only the supposed ceasefire in Lebanon but also talks on Iran” because its policy “is an endless and wide regional war.”Responding to Ben-Gvir’s remarks, he said, “Israel forced the US into war and won’t let us end it.”