Trump isn’t abandoning NATO. He’s rebalancing it

Trump scrambles to resurrect lawsuit distancing self from Epstein scandal

President Donald Trump is taking a second crack at suing the Wall Street Journal over bombshell claims regarding Jeffrey Epstein.Trump refiled a defamation suit against the newspaper Wednesday over its report about a crude birthday card it claimed Trump sent Epstein — a card Trump claimed didn't exist despite it later being released as part of the Epstein investigation.An earlier case was tossed for not meeting standards required for defamation cases.The card featured a salacious message wishing the billionaire child trafficker that every day be a "wonderful secret" and outlined by a crude doodle of an undressed woman.Trump's first lawsuit against the Journal was rejected by Miami-based U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, an appointee of former President Barack Obama. Gayles found that the lawsuit failed to allege the Journal acted with actual malice, which is required in defamation suits brought by public figures under the landmark New York Times v. Sullivan case.The updated suit was rewritten to address this, with Trump's lawyers alleging the paper “recklessly disregarded whether the Defamatory Statements were true.”Trump has a long history of threatened and actual legal action against newspapers that publish damaging information on him, and sometimes threatens specific journalists like longtime New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman.

Trump Threatens to ‘Blow Up’ Oman Over Strait of Hormuz

The President warned Oman against partnering with Iran to charge fees through the waterway as prospects of a peace deal appear to dim.

Trump threatens to ‘blow up’ US ally Oman if it does not ‘behave’ over strait of Hormuz | First Thing

President makes comments after reports Iran and Oman have discussed jointly charging a toll for ships. Plus, how ‘balcony solar’ could help fight rising energy costsGood morning.In a casual aside during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Donald Trump threatened to “blow up” Oman, a US ally, if it failed to “behave” over the reopening the strait of Hormuz.What is the latest on a deal to end the war? Negotiations are continuing but the US earlier this week struck Iranian targets, reportedly killing four members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which prompted an apparent Iranian retaliatory attack on an American airbase in Kuwait.What is happening inside Iran? Internet restrictions were partially lifted this week, revealing increasing anger from Iranians over rapid food price inflation.What is the humanitarian toll of the war? More than 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced in the latest round of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, which began in March. At least 3,213 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to the Lebanese health ministry. The office of Israel’s prime minister reported that 23 Israeli soldiers and a defence contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel.What is life like inside Israel’s “yellow line”? The Guardian’s William Christou, in Kfarchouba, Lebanon, spoke to the villagers living in fear of nightly raids and daytime bombings from the Israeli military occupying their land. Continue reading...

The Trump Who Cried Iran Deal

People have tuned out Trump's promises of a deal. That is starting a cascade of consequences.

Trump, Xi Must Get Rid of AI Compute

Trump's 'slush fund' hits wall as judges hurl fresh fraud claims: WaPo

Donald Trump's controversial settlement with the Department of Justice to establish a $1.8 billion "weaponization" fund and shield himself from IRS audits is facing a major legal challenge, with 35 retired federal judges — appointed by presidents of both parties — demanding the court investigate whether the deal constitutes fraud.According to the Washington Post, the bipartisan group of former judges filed a motion in federal court in Florida alleging that Trump and federal prosecutors deliberately misled the court by failing to disclose the settlement when voluntarily dismissing the underlying IRS lawsuit.The retired judges' filing directly challenges the legitimacy of the agreement. "The purported 'settlement' that the parties never placed before this Court raises profound questions about the parties' candor toward the Court and manipulation of the judicial system, which threatens to undermine confidence in the administration of justice," it read.The judges called for U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams to set aside the judgment and reopen the case for "judicial review of the extraordinary — and historically unprecedented — circumstances presented by this litigation and by the collusive 'settlement.'"Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization filed the initial lawsuit against the IRS in January seeking as much as $10 billion in damages. The suit claimed damages for the theft of their tax filings by a former agency consultant who leaked them to news organizations, the Post is reporting.Williams had previously expressed skepticism about the case itself, questioning whether the parties were "sufficiently adverse" given that Trump was simultaneously serving as president while suing the agencies he oversees.The retired judges argued that Trump and the federal government are "improperly using the IRS lawsuit to allow a 'commission' controlled by the President to dole out $1.776 billion in taxpayer dollars without constitutional or congressional authority" and to obtain "unlawful private benefits to the President and his family" by permanently barring any audits of Trump's prior tax returns.The filing represents the latest effort to block a settlement that would shield Trump from nearly $100 million in potential IRS liability while establishing a fund ostensibly designed to compensate others who claim they were targets of a "weaponized" justice system — but which critics say functions primarily as a slush fund for Trump allies and January 6 insurrectionists.

Pam Bondi faces career-ending probe as Trump strips her of ethics shield

Fired U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi could be stripped of her law license after a retired judge and 120 Florida legal experts filed a sweeping ethics complaint against her with the Florida Bar.The complaint was brought by Peggy Quince, a retired chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, and carries the signatures of more than 120 judges, law professors, and attorneys. It is their second attempt; the Bar turned away an earlier filing last June on the grounds that it doesn't investigate sitting federal appointees. But President Donald Trump's dismissal of Bondi in April means that obstacle is no longer in the way."No one lawyer is above the law," Quince said in a statement.The coalition behind the complaint — which includes Lawyers Defending American Democracy, the Democracy Defenders Fund, and Lawyers for the Rule of Law — alleges Bondi pressured DOJ attorneys to bend their ethical obligations or face termination.Much of the filing focuses on Bondi's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, accusing her of misleading the public about a supposed "client list" she claimed was on her desk, then overseeing a document release so poorly managed that unredacted names, birth dates, and photos of victims were exposed.Attorneys for survivors called one January release "the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history." Virginia Canter, chief counsel at the Democracy Defenders Fund, said, "Lawyers have been disbarred for less."The complaint further alleges Bondi greenlit prosecutions without probable cause against Trump adversaries — including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose cases a federal judge dismissed in November — and against protesters detained during immigration raids. Bondi's successor, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer, re-indicted Comey in late April on a separate charge.The Democracy Defenders Fund says Bondi had "created an environment in which DOJ lawyers were induced to engage in acts they were ethically prohibited from doing, under threat of suspension or termination — or were fired for not doing so."The Justice Department called the complaint, "a baseless and pathetic media stunt conjured up by inept attorneys desperate for relevance," according to the Miami Herald.Bondi is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee Friday over the Epstein investigation — but only in a closed-door session, not the public sworn testimony Democrats sought."Bondi must testify under oath, on camera, for the public to see," Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) wrote on X.Since her firing, Bondi has been recovering from thyroid cancer surgery. Trump has since appointed her to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Pentagon slashes NATO combat commitments as Trump pushes Europe to defend itself

The Pentagon informed allies it plans to reduce U.S. military contributions to NATO by one-third to one-half amid a push for European burden-sharing.