While President Donald Trump wages the most aggressive U.S. crackdown on drug cartels in nearly 40 years, his daughter and son-in-law are set to inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the illegal drug trade. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are not stupid people. While support for criminality is presumably not their intent, they are […]
Vice President JD Vance argued that the White House can lift oil sanctions against Iran without the approval of Congress, as Republicans express concern over the economic relief listed in a newly signed peace deal. “We actually have an opinion from OLC that we feel quite confident about that,” Vance said in a Thursday press […]
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker says Iran deal negotiates away U.S. victories, warning the $300 billion fund dwarfs Obama's 2015 agreement.
The United States and Iran have officially signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war in Iran. The 14-point agreement includes an immediate end to fighting on all fronts including Lebanon, an end to the U.S. naval blockade on Iran and the full resumption of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. It also proposes easing oil sanctions on Iran, unfreezing Iranian assets and launching a $300 billion investment fund to rebuild Iran, all while tabling the question of Iran’s nuclear program, which is instead set to be negotiated over in the coming months. “The United States is more eager for this war to end than Iran is,” says professor Vali Nasr, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “In Iran, they’re very triumphant.” We discuss the long-term effects of the war, from the growing U.S. distrust of Israel, to the new generation of political leaders in the Islamic Republic, to the evolution of Iran into a major power player in an increasingly multipolar world.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Vice President JD Vance are going all-out for kraut.
Vice President JD Vance eviscerated Israeli officials who have criticized President Trump over the US-Iran memorandum of understanding, blasting them for complaining about the document that requires them to stop striking Hezbollah in Lebanon.
President Donald Trump spent $14.2 million to paint the Reflecting Pool a blue color. The water immediately turned green in the hot Washington D.C., sunshine. Now, taxpayers are funding millions more to fix the problem. The cleanup adds another nearly $2 million to the cost of the renovations, the Columbus Post Dispatch reported. An Ohio company known as Green Water Services scored the contract. The company claims on its website that it has the "only water purification system in the world whose patented technology is backed by government and academic research."A reporter witnessed workers pouring hydrogen peroxide into the reflecting pool on Tuesday. Staff have been scooping the algae, vacuuming the algae and also deploying the "patented technology" from Green Water Services.The CEO of Green Water is Al George, who was also quoted by a New York Times report a month ago as bragging "about the prospect that the government would hire the company to bring mobile, trailer-based filtration systems — seemingly a temporary stopgap — to treat the pool’s water."As recently as mid-May, the administration knew there would be a continuing algae problem. The public contract information on the project shows that their work on the reflecting pool will go on through September 30.George told the San Diego Union-Tribune in January that their technology can achieve an average 93 percent reduction in bacteria "on the days we treated.""The technology uses self-contained units that require only electrical power to operate. The machines bring in air, remove nitrogen to create 95 percent pure oxygen, then feed that oxygen into an ozone generator. The ozonated water passes through a patented nanobubble generator that creates the microscopic bubbles as water is drawn in and expelled back out," the Union-Tribune explained.When Trump announced the project, he bragged, "It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be waterproof. It's going to be reflecting again."He wrote on Truth Social on May 16, "Also, went to a higher quality sealer with more reflectivity. Check it out before the Opening — It's a very exciting project!” the president said.The Times also reported that these contracts were awarded through a no-bid process. Typically, the government will take several bids to compare the costs for the project and ensure they're getting the best deal. David Schutzenhofer, who manages Trump's golf and country club in New Jersey, was picked to spearhead the Reflecting Pool project.The total project will now cost nearly $16 million. The Washington Post recruited Alana Menendez, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Virginia’s Department of Environmental Sciences, to research the Reflecting Pool algae over the past several years using satellite data. The recent tests show 2026 is one of the top years for algae in the reflecting pool. The amount of algae generally follows the weather and the sunlight. So when the city experienced a heatwave in 2019-2021, the amount of algae in the pool also soared. Around the time the pool was refilled, the city was facing another unseasonable heat spike.
For now, there are many questions about who was conspiring to do what, and how.
Here is the text of the memorandum of understanding that was signed Wednesday by President Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, as well as Pakistan's prime minister.