Vue lecture

Trump says NBC’s Kristen ‌Welker should face ‘punishment’ from FCC

Trump’s threat comes after host described success record of candidates whom president had endorsed as ‘mixed’

Donald Trump ⁠on Sunday said NBC’s Kristen ‌Welker – host of Meet the Press – should face “rebuke or punishment” from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Welker, during a live segment for a local Washington DC affiliate, described the success record of political candidates whom the president had endorsed as “mixed”. The segment aired before Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

© Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

© Photograph: Jim Bourg/Reuters

  •  

The Guardian view on rare earths: it’s common sense to secure essential supply chains | Editorial

Par : Editorial

Outsourcing the industry to China cannot continue, but Europe knows it can no longer count on the US for a solution

The alarm sounded 16 years ago. In 2010, China blocked exports of key rare earths to Japan in a row over disputed islands in the East China Sea. The critical minerals are essential to everything from advanced weaponry and iPhones to electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines, so the rest of the world took note. But it didn’t take much action. China still accounts for about 70% of rare-earth mining globally and 90% of separation and processing.

Then, last year, Beijing forced Donald Trump to back away from his trade war – not with its retaliatory tariffs, but the curbing of rare-earth exports. A scramble for new supplies began in earnest. The year-long trade truce is due to expire in November. The price of erbium, an element essential to communications infrastructure, has already jumped because of fears that export controls will soon be renewed.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy

© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy

© Photograph: Imaginechina Limited/Alamy

  •  

Trump Says Venezuelan Oil Will Refill U.S. Stockpiles, but It’s Not So Simple

New projects can take years to produce meaningful amounts of oil, and that’s especially true in Venezuela, where infrastructure is in disrepair.

© Demetrius Freeman for The New York Times

The Trump administration’s deal with Venezuela would give the United States control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
  •  

Canada erects giant ‘Lake Ontario’ sign as spat with Trump over name escalates

Meanwhile, Trump posts video of himself kicking over a Lake Ontario sign and replacing it with Lake America sign

Donald Trump and Canada continued a verbal duel on Saturday over the US government’s administrative renaming of Lake Ontario, with the Ontario premier erecting a giant sign saying “Lake Ontario. Now and Always” – and the American president posting a video of him tearing down an avatar of that sign, erecting a replacement saying Lake America, and dancing to YMCA.

Rhetoric over the naming of Lake Ontario is the public face of an escalating trade dispute between the US and its northern neighbor involving a 50% US tariff on Canadian steel and retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

  •  

Why the United States Can’t Quit Its Wars

The country’s longest war came to an end exactly five years ago. Today it offers lessons for policymakers seeking to avoid an endless war in Iran.

© Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

A U.S. military helicopter over Kabul, Afghanistan, in May 2021.
  •  

‘Freedom Fuel’ Touts Cheap Gas. A Lawsuit Says the Dealer Didn’t Pay for It.

A lawsuit claims that a New Jersey-based company failed to pay for nearly $4 million worth of gas, some of which was sold to gas stations promoted by President Trump.

© Matt Rourke/Associated Press

A Freedom Fuel Network gas station sold gas for $3.57 per gallon in Dresher, Pa., outside Philadelphia, where the cost of a gallon of gas reached $3.99 that week.
  •  

Google's Calling Lake Ontario 'Lake America' Now

Google's Calling Lake Ontario 'Lake America' Now

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order demanding Lake Ontario be renamed to Lake America. At the signing of the order, he sat next to a big poster board map of the Great Lakes, with a big red arrow labeling Lake Ontario as "Lake America," with the words "Making the Great Lakes Even Greater." 

The Canadian province of Ontario borders the north, west, and southwest sides of the lake, with New York State on the south and east.

  •  

Google Maps Changes Lake Ontario to Lake America Following Trump’s Executive Order

Users in the United States will see the new label, following President Trump’s executive order last week.

© Eugen Sakhnenko for The New York Times

Lake Ontario in Toronto. Ontario is a historical Indigenous name for the lake, predating the creation of Canada and the United States.
  •  

Ontario premier unveils Lake Ontario sign in response to Trump’s ‘Lake America’ order – video

The Canadian province's premier, Doug Ford, installed a billboard-sized sign on the lake's shoreline after the US president signed an executive order on Thursday directing US federal agencies to change the lake's name on US maps, documents and databases to 'Lake America'. Ford told reporters that the lake's name, which is more than 400 years old, would remain unchanged. Trade talks between the US and Canada collapsed last week, with each side ‌blaming the ⁠other for derailing three days of intensive negotiations

Continue reading...

© Photograph: The Canadian Press/AP

© Photograph: The Canadian Press/AP

© Photograph: The Canadian Press/AP

  •  

Iceland Votes to Steer Clear of European Union Talks

After divisive debate, Icelanders rejected a proposal to resume negotiations on joining the bloc in a referendum with the highest voter turnout in almost two decades.

© Marco Di Marco/Associated Press

Leaders of the “No to E.U.” campaign reacting as early results came in during a rally in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Saturday.
  •  

Trump the renamer-in-chief keen to leave his mark – or his stain – on world

As Americans face an affordability crisis and war with Iran, the president is focused on … changing the names of things

Is it a key policy move which will “recognize the extraordinary contributions of the American people”? Or “real foolishness”?

Whatever the impact of Donald Trump unusual decision to retitle Lake Ontario as Lake America, days after Canada’s prime minister refused to be cowed by Trump’s punitive tariffs, it has certainly divided opinion – but perhaps it shouldn’t have come as a surprise.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

  •  

Documents leaked by Trump official to bolster a conspiracy show ‘absolutely nothing’

Inside the US state department, critics are still attacking a shuttered office established to counter foreign propaganda. Now, some of its work is also being resumed

A botched leak of purportedly explosive government files to a prominent conservative online personality was supposed to offer proof of what the Trump administration and its allies have long alleged: that a little-known office inside the US state department, created to fight foreign propaganda, had secretly become a tool for domestic censorship.

Two former high-ranking officials at the Global Engagement Center (GEC), a target of Republican ire that lost its funding in 2024 and was disbanded after Donald Trump’s return to office in 2025, say the documents show nothing of the kind.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/AFP/Getty Images

  •  

Deportees Sent to Liberia Recount Harrowing Details of U.S. Expulsion and Treatment by ICE

Ten deportees said they experienced or witnessed what they called abusive or violent treatment by ICE. They spent months in detention, they said, before being sent to nations where they had no ties.

© Matthew Jacobs/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A plane carrying deportees from the United States at the international airport outside of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, on Aug. 20.
  •  

Postal Service Rule Could Bar Millions From Voting by Mail

A judge temporarily blocked the agency from implementing a strict new rule governing mail voting. The policy could disproportionately affect Democrats and many battleground elections.

© William Liang/Associated Press

Stacked ballots in a processing center in City of Industry, Calif.
  •  

How Trump’s Policy Agenda Runs Through One Federal Court, in Texas

For years, conservative litigants flocked to Judge Reed O’Connor’s district. Now, North Texas has become a favorite destination of the Justice Department.

© U.S. Courts, via Reuters

Judge Reed O’Connor in 2018. He has built a reputation as a conservative stalwart and became the chief judge of the Northern District of Texas last August.
  •  

Trump’s ‘economic D-day’ against Iran risks driving the stakes even higher | Sina Toossi

As with its approach to Hormuz, the US has mistaken applying pressure for an actual strategy. But Tehran has chips of its own to play

Donald Trump has found a new way to promise victory over Iran. After months of war have failed to force Iran’s capitulation or collapse, his administration has unveiled what the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, calls Operation Economic Outcast: an effort to cut it off from what remains of the global economy and threaten foreign governments, banks and companies with sanctions if they continue doing business with Tehran.

There is no question that Iran is vulnerable. Its economy has been battered by years of sanctions, war and a months-long US naval blockade. Iranian officials acknowledge that oil exports and access to foreign currency have been severely constrained. Ordinary Iranians are already enduring high inflation, currency depreciation and worsening living standards. Further economic strangulation will inflict significant additional hardship.

Sina Toossi is a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, where his work focuses on US-Iran relations, US policy toward the Middle East and nuclear issues

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

© Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

  •  

Expedia Faces Off With Cuban Families Over Land Seized Decades Ago

A trial involving claims against the travel company has opened in federal court. Dozens of such lawsuits have been filed since President Trump opened the door to them.

© Phil Clarke Hill/Corbis, via Getty Images

A beach on Cayo Coco island in Cuba. Land on the cay, off Cuba’s north coast, was seized decades ago by Cuba’s Communist authorities and eventually developed for tourism.
  •  
❌