Author: potus
A few years ago, it would have looked like mission impossible for even the most capable Russian spy. Divide the United States from its allies? Check. Discredit its normative power (human rights, the rule of law, democracy, altruism)? Check. Weaken U.S. institutions to make further manipulation easier? Check. One could go on. But it’s simpler to try testing the opposite hypothesis. Name one thing that U.S. President Donald Trump has done since taking office that the Kremlin did not like. Crickets. A few years ago, it would have looked like mission impossible for even the most capable Russian spy. Divide the United States…
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Ukraine would have to make concessions over land that Russia had taken since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war.Mr. Rubio spoke as he was flying to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks with senior Ukrainian officials, and 10 days after a contentious White House meeting between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. The Trump administration halted military aid to Ukraine after the blowup, which centered on Mr. Trump’s refusal to include any security guarantees in a proposed deal involving Ukraine’s natural resources.“The most important thing that…
Tesla’s sell-off on Wall Street intensified on Monday, with shares of the electric vehicle maker plunging 15%, their worst day on the market since September 2020.On Friday, Tesla wrapped up a seventh straight week of losses, its longest losing streak since debuting on the Nasdaq in 2010. The stock has fallen every week since CEO Elon Musk went to Washington, D.C., to take on a major role in the second Trump White House.Since peaking at $479.86 on Dec. 17, Tesla shares have lost more than 50% of their value, wiping out upward of $800 billion in market cap. Monday marked…
Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, retaliated against President Trump’s economic threats on Monday by imposing a 25 percent surcharge on the energy that it exports to Michigan, Minnesota and New York.The move will cost businesses and residents in each state up to $400,000 per day, and lift the average energy bill by about $100 per month, Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference. The province exports enough energy to power about 1.5 million homes and businesses in those states, he added. They went into effect on Monday.President Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on Canadian exports last Tuesday, but then…
The Trump administration has targeted USAID as part of his efforts to trim government spending and reduce ‘waste’.The United States has cancelled 83 percent of all the programmes at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) following a six-week review, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States,” Rubio wrote in a post on the social media platform X. Rubio did not specify exactly which programmes were being…
(The Center Square) – Illinois lawmakers are pushing patient “end-of-life” bills for the second year in a row, but a coalition opposed to the legislation says people who are disabled would be harmed.Stop Assisted Suicide Illinois Coalition members say Senate Bill 9 and House Bill 1328 would legalize assisted suicide.Disability policy professional Jules Good said many disabilities can become terminal due to lack of access to appropriate care. Good said there has been a push by some doctors to reclassify treatable conditions like anorexia as terminal.“I cannot overstate how dangerous this is. When I was at my lowest, if a…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is known best for enforcing the right to disability services across America’s schools. But under President Donald Trump, it’s taking a frontline role in his political battles.Trump appointees have halted thousands of pending cases while they open new investigations aligned with the president’s campaign promises. Career staffers have been sidelined and pressured to quit, and those who remain are being ordered to refocus priorities on antisemitism, transgender issues and anti-DEI complaints.A memo Friday from the civil rights office’s chief announced antisemitism cases are now the top priority, taking aim at…
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gives a keynote address at CES 2025, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, 2025.Steve Marcus | ReutersNvidia has lost nearly a third of its value just two months after notching a fresh high.The leading chipmaker slumped about 5% on Monday, building on last week’s losses as heavy selling continued across the tech sector. The popular artificial intelligence stock has shed about a fifth of its market cap since President Donald Trump’s inauguration.The stock hit an intraday high of $153.13 on Jan. 7.Tariff fears and growth concerns have rocked technology stocks,…
Elon Musk’s social media platform X experienced several outages on Monday, leaving some users unable to load the site.Nearly 40,000 users reported problems with the platform around 10 a.m. ET, according to the analytics platform Downdetector, which gathers data from users who spot glitches and report them to the service. Around 28,000 people were experiencing issues as of 11:30 a.m. ET, and about 22,000 people were having trouble with the site as of 2:00 p.m. ET.When X resumed loading for some users Monday afternoon, Musk said the company had suffered a “massive cyberattack.” Musk did not provide any evidence, and…
Israel says it has cut off electricity to Gaza in what seems like another attempt to force Hamas to accept changes it wants to impose upon the ceasefire terms agreed in January. Israel imposed a blockade of humanitarian aid entering Gaza early in March in an attempt to force Hamas into extending the ceasefire’s first phase and releasing more captives. It wants to do that to avoid moving to the second phase, which would entail a permanent end to the war. Aid agencies, human rights organisations and countries, including some of Israel’s allies, have denounced the decision, citing its humanitarian…