Author: potus
WASHINGTON — Presidents love to bask in the patriotic glow of bringing hostages home — none more than Donald Trump.Negotiations over prisoner swaps can be tough and the prices can be high, and experts warn that quickly giving hostage-takers the concessions they want gives them incentives for further kidnappings. But the immediate rewards are unambiguous: Americans, regardless of party, want their compatriots back.A trade executed Tuesday returned Marc Fogel to the United States after years of imprisonment in Russia in exchange for Alexander Vinnik, who pleaded guilty in the United States to money-laundering charges. Fogel, a teacher who was jailed…
As he prepared to go to Washington this week, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, spoke of building on the warm relations he shared with President Trump during his first term in the White House.But Mr. Trump can be a fickle friend. So when Mr. Modi meets with him on Thursday, he is expected to bear offerings designed to ease emerging points of friction and preserve growing U.S.-India ties.One major focus is trade. Indian officials have said that domestic companies are in talks to increase purchases of American energy supplies, particularly liquefied natural gas. The two leaders are also expected to…
Mark Lenhard, CEO of U.K.-based remittances platform Zepz.Lukas Schulze | Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty ImagesLONDON — British digital remittances company Zepz is laying off dozens of IT workers and is in the process of closing down business units in Poland and Kenya.Roughly 200 staff members will be impacted by the redundancy measures, two employees who were made redundant told CNBC, asking to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter.As of January, London-headquartered Zepz — formerly known as WorldRemit — had a global headcount of 1,000 people, meaning the redundancies affect around 20% of its total workforce.The layoffs…
En un rincón alejado en el noreste de Colombia, donde los caminos rústicos conducen a colinas exuberantes bordeadas de plataneras, los agricultores y sus familias se han convertido en víctimas de una oleada de violencia como no se había visto en el país en una generación.Mientras dos grupos rebeldes luchan por el territorio, más de 54.000 personas han huido de sus hogares, se estima que 80 personas han muerto en cuestión de días, y se cree que el número de víctimas mortales aumentará.En la raíz de este conflicto hay décadas de disputas por la tierra y el dinero del narcotráfico,…
En un rincón alejado en el noreste de Colombia, donde los caminos rústicos conducen a colinas exuberantes bordeadas de plataneras, los agricultores y sus familias se han convertido en víctimas de una oleada de violencia como no se había visto en el país en una generación.Mientras dos grupos rebeldes luchan por el territorio, más de 54.000 personas han huido de sus hogares, se estima que 80 personas han muerto en cuestión de días, y se cree que el número de víctimas mortales aumentará.En la raíz de este conflicto hay décadas de disputas por la tierra y el dinero del narcotráfico,…
President Trump’s order that the United States exit the World Health Organization could undo programs meant to ensure the safety, security and study of a deadly virus that once took half a billion lives, experts warn. His retreat, they add, could end decades in which the agency directed the management of smallpox virus remnants in an American-held cache.Health experts say discontinuation of the W.H.O.’s oversight threatens to damage precautions against the virus leaking into the world, and to disrupt research on countermeasures against the lethal disease. They add that it could also raise fears among allies and adversaries that the…
To Ukraine, they are a chit to play in an ongoing appeal to President Trump for more financial and military support. To Mr. Trump, they should be overdue payment for billions of dollars committed to Kyiv’s war effort.Either way, Ukraine’s vast and valuable mineral resources have suddenly become a prominent component in the maneuvering over the country’s future.Over the past week, Mr. Trump has repeatedly pushed the idea of trading U.S. aid for Ukraine’s critical minerals. He told Fox News on Monday that he wanted “the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earths,” a group of minerals crucial…
In the months after the Jan. 6 attacks, a hard-charging federal prosecutor in Manhattan eagerly oversaw efforts to find and arrest Capitol rioters in the New York area, his former colleagues say, and even proposed to the Justice Department that his office should play a central role in the investigation.His name: Emil Bove.Bove, whose prominence soared when he was one of Donald Trump’s defense lawyers last year, is now the Trump-appointed acting deputy attorney general, essentially the chief operating officer of the Justice Department. He has been leading an effort to identify everyone who worked on Jan. 6 cases and remedy what Trump called “a…
The billionaire Trump ally has pushed back at criticism over transparency, saying his department’s work is ‘common sense’.President Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk made a rare public appearance at the White House on Tuesday to defend the swift and extensive cuts he’s pushing across the federal government, amid concerns that he’s amassing power with little transparency or accountability. Billionaire Musk stood next to Trump in the Oval Office at the White House with his four-year-old son as the United States president praised his work in the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump signed an executive order expanding Musk’s…
The leaders of the world’s two rival superpowers have plenty to talk about. But so far, it seems, they can’t agree on when they should speak, or even whether they already have.Over the last 10 days or so, President Trump has sent conflicting messages about talking to China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. Mr. Trump said on Feb. 3 that they would have a call within “24 hours,” then reversed himself, saying he was in “no rush” to talk. More recently, when asked whether the two had spoken since he took office, Mr. Trump said that they had.By contrast, Mr. Xi…