Author: potus
President Donald Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday for their first meeting since the United States began direct negotiations with Russia to secure an agreement that would end the yearslong war in Ukraine.Zelenskyy’s visit is expected to focus in large part on a potential U.S.-Ukraine deal on the European country’s rare-earth minerals, which are used to make a variety of tech products.Trump previewed the visit during a gathering of his Cabinet members Wednesday, signaling the two countries had made progress on an agreement that would grant the United States a significant ownership stake…
Kyiv, Ukraine – It’s next to impossible to imagine Volodymyr Zelenskyy clean-shaven, clad in casual clothes and cracking jokes right next to the Kremlin. “I’m here, in the heart of Russia – if it still has a heart,” a radiant Zelenskyy quipped in a satirical “news dispatch” filmed near the Kremlin’s vermilion walls. The year was 2014, Moscow had already annexed Crimea and was backing separatists in Donbas and pro-Kremlin protesters in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east and south. Zelenskyy was a comedian, actor and head of the District 95 troupe. Politics, for him, was fodder for sarcastic routines. “You can say, ‘hail Ukraine’…
China has in recent weeks staged military drills off Australia and Vietnam, sending pointed warnings near and far. Neither was a full-fledged exercise. But taken together, China’s recent shows of force, experts said, conveyed a message: the region must not ignore Beijing’s power and claims.Three Chinese naval ships, including a cruiser with 112 missile tubes, showed up in the waters near Australia this month, only announcing plans to fire artillery for practice after the exercise had started. A few days later, on Monday, Chinese forces held live-fire drills in the Gulf of Tonkin, after Vietnam pressed its territorial claims in…
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has offered the United States to restore direct air links between the two countries during the latest round of consultations with Washington, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday. Russian and U.S. diplomats met in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss normalizing the operation of their respective embassies that has been crippled by multiple round of diplomats’ expulsions during previous years.The Russian Foreign Ministry hailed the talks as “substantive and businesslike” and noted in a statement that “joint steps were agreed upon to ensure unimpeded financing of the activities of diplomatic missions of Russia and the United States…
China’s Ministry of Commerce accuses Washington of ‘shifting the blame and shirking responsibility’ over opioid crisis.China has warned the United States of “countermeasures” after US President Donald Trump announced he would impose new tariffs on Chinese goods in response to the smuggling of fentanyl. Trump on Thursday flagged an additional 10 percent duty on Chinese imports while announcing that his proposed 25 percent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods would go ahead on March 4. Trump said on Truth Social that the new tariff, which would come on top of a 10 percent duty imposed on Chinese goods earlier this…
WASHINGTON (AP) — Matt Ries has lived in Florida only three years, but everyone told him last summer was unusually hot. That was followed by three hurricanes in close succession. Then temperatures dropped below freezing for days this winter, and snow blanketed part of the state.To Ries, 29, an Ohio native now in Tampa, the extreme weather — including the bitter cold — bore all the hallmarks of climate change.“To me it’s just kind of obvious,” said Ries, a project manager for an environmental company and self-described conservative-leaning independent. “Things are changing pretty drastically; just extreme weather all across the…
El intenso interés del presidente Donald Trump por los minerales de Ucrania parece que surgió de la nada.Este mes envió a su secretario del Tesoro a Kiev para negociar con el dirigente ucraniano, y luego empezó a aumentar la presión públicamente, lo que a sus críticos les pareció un plan de extorsión como el de un capo de la mafia.“Quiero asegurar las tierras raras”, dijo.Pero los minerales críticos han estado en la mente de Trump al menos desde 2017, cuando firmó una orden ejecutiva sobre ellos durante su primer mandato. También llamaron la atención del presidente Joe Biden.Y los recientes…
Elon Musk is everywhere.He is firing federal employees, gaining access to important government data, popping into the Oval Office, appearing on Fox News alongside President Trump and even attending a White House cabinet meeting. For some, his rampage through the institutions of the American state augurs a replacement by private interests; for others, it amounts to a Big Tech takeover. For many looking on, it’s above all a baffling bromance at the heart of power. However one understands Mr. Musk’s role in the Trump administration, it has cemented his reputation as one of the most powerful people on the planet.But…
Doug Ford, the premier of Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, was re-elected on Thursday following a campaign that focused less on standard domestic issues and more on the question of who would be best equipped to take on President Trump in a possible trade war.The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation projected his victory 10 minutes after the polls closed, saying his party, the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, had won a majority, its third since 2018.“Donald Trump thinks he can break us,” Mr. Ford told supporters gathered in Toronto to celebrate after the results were announced. “Make no mistake: Canada won’t start…
Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesA week-long rout in Bitcoin worsened Friday, with the digital asset hitting an over 3-month low, reversing gains that followed the election of U.S. President Donald Trump.Bitcoin was trading at about $78,782 in trading in Asia, down 5.5% on the day and about 25% lower than an all-time high from mid December.Bitcoin had enjoyed a surge in prices following Trump’s victory in November, with the leader having posed himself as a pro-crypto candidate during his campaign.However, prices have slipped as investors shun assets perceived to be risky given the weakness in global equity markets…