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The Trump administration deported a father of two who helped them prosecute Mexican drug cartels and put him at extreme risk of torture, Maryland court records show. The man, identified only as John Doe, was the subject of a memorandum opinion filed Friday by U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher.Doe was granted Deferral of Removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) in 2024 after an immigration judge found he would likely be tortured if returned to Mexico, where he had testified against cartel-affiliated defendants on behalf of the Justice Department.Journalist Kyle Cheney wrote on social media Sunday that Doe "was illegally removed three times in recent weeks," including once to Mexico despite his CAT protection. Gallagher's opinion details a chaotic series of removals beginning in July, including one attempt to deport Doe to Guatemala, which refused to accept him and handed him to Mexican officials, who also declined to take him. Doe was deported to Mexico outright on Aug. 1 “without his phone or other personal belongings.”The opinion notes that Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director David Venturella and Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally moved to terminate Doe's CAT protection just days before his removal in a process the court called "extremely rare,” and with no explanation in the record for their involvement.Former immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote that Doe "put himself at enormous risk to turn on the cartels and testify against them, making him a target for a hideous death if they ever got their hands on him," adding that "the Trump admin deported him to Mexico anyway."Journalist Christy Somos described the pattern more broadly, writing that the administration is "just grabbing people and throwing them wherever – other countries, camps, in danger."Gallagher ordered Doe's immediate return and directed that he be detained within 200 miles of Baltimore, Maryland, if held further, with daily status reports required until he arrives.A man who aided US authorities by testifying against Mexican cartels was illegally removed *three times* in recent weeks — including to Mexico, where he had protection from deportation due to threat of torture/death.A judge in MD has ordered his return.https://t.co/McUyfk3yFL pic.twitter.com/7hlurhoRG4— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 23, 2026

Onlookers were left stunned Sunday as new details emerged regarding the now-collapsed U.S.-Canada trade negotiations, details that include a series of extraordinary demands from the Trump administration.Trade talks between Washington and Ottawa fell through Friday, leading both nations to vow to impose tariffs on each other. President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on a number of Canadian goods, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed to match those tariffs “dollar for dollar.”As to why the talks fell through, a number of news outlets, along with Carney himself, have since revealed a series of “last-minute” demands proposed by the Trump administration that critics argued "encroached on Canadian sovereignty.”Carney claimed that Trump demanded “Canada change its French language.” Carney also claimed that the Trump administration “introduced language in the final hours of negotiations that would have restricted Canada’s ability to make trade deals with other countries,” the Associated Press reported Sunday.Accepting such terms, Carney said, would have reduced Canada to “the economic equivalent of the 51st state.”Luis Moreno, the former U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, called the Trump administration’s demands “utter and total insanity.” Arnaud Bertrand, a notable entrepreneur, described the Trump administration’s demands as “insane,” and called them “de-facto annexation.”Canadian physician and health commentator Kashif Pirzada also expressed shock, calling the Trump administration’s demands “basically colonization through the back door,” and author and military researcher Chris Owen argued there was no scenario in which Canada would even entertain such demands.“The US wanted Canada to automatically mirror US tariffs and break its own existing trade deals with its partners – in effect running Ottawa's trade policy from Washington,” Owen wrote Sunday in a social media post on X. “No country could have accepted that.”Utter and total insanity. WOW. https://t.co/NctaFqiEFV— Luis Moreno (@LuisMorenolg) August 23, 2026

Incident marks apparent escalation by Tehran in its in retaliation against UK over allowing US to use British basesHackers linked to Iran have been blamed for a cyber-attack that caused a British power plant to be temporarily shut down.The incident involved a small-scale energy generator, according to the UK government, which said that at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump has received a stark warning from a ranking member of the House Budget Committee over a recent late-night social media attack. U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) appeared on MS NOW Sunday morning to condemn Trump's economic policies as he threatens the United States' northern neighbor with a trade war. "This is going to be massive overall in terms of both exports and imports," Boyle said. "At a time in which the American economy is really teetering on recession, this is the kind of thing that actually could push us over the edge."Trump's new 50 percent tariffs went into effect after trade talks fell apart on Friday, prompting Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney to argue the country was under attack."They asked too much and they offered too little," Carney said. "You're at war when you get attacked. We got attacked."A dollar-for-dollar retaliation — which would target exports such as steel, dairy appliances and agricultural equipment — is now slated to take place on Sept. 8. "These are the largest tariffs that we have faced in almost a century," said Boyle. "The last time tariffs were this large, of course, was the Great Depression."Boyle blamed both Trump and Republicans in Congress for the growing threat of recession — then made a telling slip of the tongue. "Why is a Republican majority in Congress just so weak that they're not willing to stand up for this president," said Boyle, then corrected himself on the "Freudian slip." "Or, stand up to this president," he said. "Instead, they're standing up for this president."

Questions are being raised about Secretary of State Marco Rubio being sent to the sidelines while President Donald Trump's Iran war drags the administration down.According to a column from MSNBC's Julia Jester, as the nation's supposedly top diplomat, Rubio would normally be the face of efforts to bring the quagmire that Iran has become to a close.As the Iran war persists, the Israel-Hamas has "hit a sizable snag" and the Ukraine-Russia war continues, Rubio has appeared to step back from his role in addressing the most pressing international crises facing the United States.Instead, Rubio has focused his diplomatic efforts on the Western Hemisphere, leading negotiations on Venezuela and Cuba. His work on Cuba is personally significant, given his background as the son of Cuban immigrants.According to the report, "Over the past year, Rubio has waged a maximum pressure campaign on the communist island, crippling its economy with sanctions and publishing a 100-page department report outlining espionage and influence efforts that threaten U.S. national security."Rubio has publicly attached his name to most Cuba-related State Department actions and stood alongside Trump at a press conference following a military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, but was notably absent from major public appearances after the joint U.S.-Israel operation against Iran.According to his public schedule, Rubio "attends meetings and briefings at the White House, where he has Trump’s ear. But he’s not always deployed to conduct diplomacy in person on behalf of the U.S. in its most critical quagmires."Former State Department negotiator Aaron David Miller expressed concern about Rubio's apparent absence from the administration's most significant foreign policy challenges."I worked for half a dozen secretaries of state," Miller said. "None of them would ever have agreed, in the face of the gravest and greatest crisis of the Trump administration's foreign policy presidency, to basically be sitting this one out or perceived to be M.I.A."Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, called the decision to have special envoys report directly to Trump rather than through the secretary of state "extraordinary," telling MS NOW, "I think it’s a testament to how dysfunctional this is that the president saw fit to deploy his best friend and his son-in-law to navigate and negotiate three of the most difficult conflicts in the international system, and the results I think are pretty predictable.”

President Donald Trump backtracked in his strange tariff war with a late-night social media post in which he vowed a controversial project could be "awoken from the grave!"Trump, 80, announced on Truth Social he had paused 50 percent tariffs for Canada, slated to begin Wednesday morning, for three days. "Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!" Trump wrote.Trump provided no detail of any deal, but suggested it was linked to the "great" Keystone XL Pipeline, a 875-mile project to channel oil from Alberta, Canada directly to Steele City, Nebraska that was quashed by President Joe Biden in 2021."The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!" Trump declared. "Thank you for your attention to this matter."The U.S. Trade Representative's office provided more detail with, of course, praise for the president. "Congratulations Mr. President," the office stated on X. "The deal will include comprehensive market access for all American goods, economic security commitments, digital trade alignment, and many important provisions that will continue to protect our market and American workers, along with our Canadian partners."In a statement to NBC, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Substantial progress has been made, although there is important work still to be done.The 50 percent tariffs would have impacted about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, according to NBC News. "The import taxes would have hit products ranging from hockey sticks to some building materials, liquors and certain kinds of clothing," according to the report.

President Donald Trump is pushing to revive meetings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, which analysts worry will backfire.According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, Trump has been urging his aides to set up a meeting with Kim as soon as this fall. The Journal described the "dramatic diplomatic quest" that analysts and U.S. officials worry could prove harmful if it leads to a bad deal."It appeases yet another despotic dictator based on a misperception that a personal relationship will actually achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives," Bruce Klingner, a former senior CIA officer in the Koreas, told The Journal.Anonymous officials told The Journal that Trump has privately discussed setting up an in-person discussion with Kim. Trump has suggested they meet during his next trip to Asia, which could be in November, when world leaders gather at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Shenzhen, China, officials told The Journal.Trump sees a one-on-one meeting with Kim as a chance to reopen dialogue with North Korea, but U.S. officials told The Journal they don't expect much progress. The Journal noted that North Korea's nuclear arsenal has grown and become more capable of striking the U.S. since Trump and Kim's previous three summits.On Saturday, Trump posted on Truth Social a picture of himself with Kim from the first administration, writing, "Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we're smiling." He added, "Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!"Trump has also scaled back drills between the U.S. and South Korean militaries, partly citing his "very good relationship" with Kim. Victor Cha, an expert on North Korea at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Journal that the move gives him a chance to gesture toward Kim."He's made clear that he wants to meet Kim again," Cha said. "These exercises presented him an opportunity to do something concrete to show Kim he is serious about meeting."The U.S. doesn't formally recognize North Korea as a nuclear power. According to The Journal, as victory in Iran remains elusive, analysts worry North Korea will have a stronger hand to get Washington to change its mind."Ideationally, that's very important for North Korea," Cha said. "They've always wanted the U.S. to give up on denuclearization and just accept them as a nuclear weapons state."

The Department of Defense is weighing a retreat and not rebuilding bases after President Donald Trump exposed Middle East vulnerabilities.According to a Tuesday article, the Pentagon's policy office is evaluating whether to retreat long-term from the Persian Gulf after Iranian strikes battered military bases. The Washington Post reported that damage to the bases presents a "once-in-a-generation" chance for the Pentagon to reevaluate its footprint in the Middle East."The war really did highlight the vulnerability...of U.S. forces in the region," Michael Ratney told The Post. Ratney is a former diplomat who served as the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and deputy chief of mission in Qatar.The shift would leave battered bases unrepaired and move U.S. forces back, according to The Post. A person familiar with the change told The Post that U.S. Central Command is considering keeping in place shifts away from bases that were evacuated because they were too vulnerable to Iranian missile and drone attacks."Iran thinks we are in the traditional places," the person told The Washington Post. "And we are not."The Post noted that the Pentagon's retreat could impact U.S. allies in the Gulf because they rely on the presence of U.S. forces in the region for defense. The move could leave them "unable to defend themselves against Iranian attacks," according to The Post. The largest and most permanent bases in the Middle East are in the Persian Gulf, according to The Post. The headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet is in Bahrain, and countries like Kuwait host Army and Air Force assets, The Post added.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not yet ordered a formal review of U.S. posture in the region, The Post noted. An anonymous senior official who spoke to The Post called it "prudent planning" and said, "Decisions are going to have to be made on some of this stuff."