Category: World

Hegseth won’t say if he advised Trump to attack Iran during heated hearingDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth is testifying before the House and Senate subcommittees Tuesday morning to justify President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion budget request for the U.S. military.
While the testimony is focused on the massive investment in the Defense Department, the ongoing war with Iran is likely to become a major topic. Lawmakers may also question Hegseth about drawing down the number of U.S. troops in Europe, as well as about support for the war in Ukraine.
General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is joining Hegseth.
During opening remarks, Hegseth called the budget “historic” but contended it was “fiscally responsible.”
The budget testimony comes a month after Hegseth gave a combative testimony to the House and Senate Armed Services Committee in which he accused congressional lawmakers of being “the biggest adversary.”
Ahead of Hegseth’s opening remarks, Rep. Betty McCollum ..

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse returned to West Palm Beach to demand prosecutions from Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, steps away from where Florida prosecutors brokered the dead sex offender’s infamous “sweetheart” deal nearly 20 years ago.
An unofficial hearing with Democrats on the House Oversight Committee — only a few miles from the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where many survivors were introduced to Epstein — heard testimony from five women who recounted their abuse and years of failures from state and federal officials to investigate their claims or the alleged network of powerful figures connected to him.
Dani Hannah Bensky said Epstein abused her in 2004 and 2005, eight years after Maria Farmer first reported him to the FBI. When she was first subpoenaed in 2008 at age 20, no one told her she was entitled to a victims’ rights advocate or a lawyer, she told the panel on Tuesday.
“For many parts of my interview, it felt like an interrogation,” she said.
“Our entren..

Is opposition to President Donald Trump’s policies a sincere political stance or the sign of a mental health problem? He seems to believe it’s the latter.
During an Oval Office event focusing on new maternal health initiatives on Monday, the president accused Democrats who voted against his partisan spending package last year of doing so because of “Trump Derangement” and claimed the opposition “can’t even see straight” because of their alleged symptoms.
“They've got serious Trump Derangement, which actually is a disease. I'm hearing it is actually a disease. It's an honor,” Trump insisted.
The president was referring to a fake condition coined by MAGA-aligned media figures who accuse Democrats of opposing him because of what they call “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Moments afterwards, the White House official X account posted an ersatz prescription for the non-existent condition advising treatment by “trusting in Trump,” listening to the U.S. national anthem, limiting co..

President Donald Trump announced Monday his plan to reduce the 18-cent federal gas tax for an unspecified period, citing soaring U.S. fuel prices due to the Iran war.
Waiving the tax requires Congressional legislation, a body currently controlled by Trump's fellow Republicans.
“Yeah, I'm going to reduce,” Trump told reporters when asked about suspending the tax. Pressed on the duration, he stated, “till it's appropriate.”
Separately, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said on X that he is introducing legislation Monday to suspend the gas tax.
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley said on X that he is introducing legislation Monday to suspend the gas tax (AP)In March, some Democrats including Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona first proposed suspending the tax, which generates about $2.5 billion per month in road funding, until October. Since 2008, more than $275 billion – including $118 billion from the 2021 infrastructure law – has been shifted from the general fund to pa..

The acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has attempted to soothe public concern over the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship — which has seen 17 Americans evacuated from the vessel and seven others return to five states — saying: “This is not Covid.”
Three people died and five others have fallen ill in the outbreak which originated on the MV Hondius ocean vessel last month. Travelers were evacuated from the ship in Spain’s Canary Islands Sunday.
None of the 140 passengers who remained on board have virus symptoms, global health officials said. Hantavirus is spread when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings.
The 17Americans from the boat will be taken to the National Quarantine Unit, a secured facility on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus in Omaha. They will be “interviewed and assessed for risk,” Acting CDC Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told CNN Sunday.
“This is not Covid and we don’t want to treat it like Covid,” he said…