Top World News
Sep 15, 2026
'Extraordinarily dire' signs spark fears of imminent US crash: 'This could be it'
A U.S. market crash could be just around the corner “directly as a result” of a recent Middle East development and a confluence of other factors, political analysts Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti warned on Monday.Last week, the Yemeni militant organization the Houthis gained significant control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait — a critical global shipping chokepoint in the Red Sea — after seizing control of Yemen’s west coast and Mayyun island, which divides the strait into two channels. The Saudi Arabian East-West oil pipeline was also damaged in an attack originating from Iraq, threatening 4% of global oil supply.The developments come as oil prices continue to surge to what Ball called “extraordinarily dire” levels amid the months-long disruption of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.Experts have already warned that the disruption to trade through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait could inflict a global “inflationary shock,” but Enjeti warned that a confluence of other factors specific to the United States could soon send the U.S. economy into freefall.“This could be it,” Enjeti warned in an episode of the political program “Breaking Points” that aired on Monday.Specifically, Enjeti pointed to the extent to which the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is propping up the U.S. economy, with Deloitte finding that “AI-fueled tech investments” accounted for “about half” of real U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth since 2025. With AI tech leaders unanimously calling for a “slowdown” in recent days amid fears that the rapidly developing tech could "destroy humanity,” the combination of Iran-war-caused inflation and slowdowns in AI investments could be catastrophic, Enjeti warned.“Let's say you have a unilateral tech slowdown, which is propping up the entire U.S. economy, [and] people wake up to diesel going $6.23 a gallon — it was $6 last week, and that was the all-time high — that's where we're at!” Enjeti said. “You've got crushing consumer sentiment, you've got $4.31 a gallon in gasoline, $6.23 diesel... that, combined with the genuine downturn in the U.S. stock market, [and] we are living in a whole [different] universe at that point. That would actually lead to... I can't even imagine. You would have Federal Reserve behavior, unemployment could skyrocket.”The tools and circumstances that have kept the U.S. market somewhat stable throughout President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran, Ball warned, were also close to expiring.“There were all sorts of cushions that were in place: China, which dramatically reduced their [oil] buying, our Strategic Petroleum Reserve that we were drawing [from], [the Saudis] were able to use this East-West pipeline to get more barrels out of the region,” Ball noted. “Now, it feels like all of those previous pieces which cushioned the blow are falling away, and Trump's ability to market manipulate has also seemingly fallen away.”
Sep 15, 2026
Trump humiliated as his enemies secure 'almost unprecedented achievement'
A lightning offensive by Iranian-backed Houthi militants along Yemen's Red Sea coast has handed Tehran fresh leverage in its economic standoff with Washington, giving Iran the ability to threaten a chokepoint even busier than the Strait of Hormuz.The Houthis swept through the towns of Mokha and Dhabab last week and seized the island of Perim, cementing control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, known as the "Gate of Tears," and notching a stunning strategic victory, experts told the Washington Post."This is a major, almost unprecedented, strategic achievement for Iran and the Houthis," said Dennis Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and a former Israeli military intelligence analyst. "At precisely the moment when Tehran is trying to drive up the economic cost of its confrontation with the United States, the Houthi advance gives Iran enormous additional leverage."About 8.7 percent of global seaborne trade passes through the strait, according to U.N. figures, including 20 percent of container and car shipments and 15 percent of oil products. With Iran-aligned forces now near both Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, Tehran could squeeze Washington on multiple fronts.The timing is damaging for President Donald Trump, who faces political pressure from an unpopular war with Iran and rising energy prices two months before the Nov. 3 midterms.Trump has acknowledged he does not expect to end the conflict or lower gas prices before Election Day. Oil has jumped above $100 a barrel, its highest level since May."Friday was the first day that Iran really started winning the war," one Yemeni official aligned with the Saudi-backed government told the Post, speaking anonymously.Trump struck a softer tone Saturday, telling reporters "the Houthis called us" and claiming they "don't want to fight with us," adding that "they are letting most ships go through."Yet the advance came alongside a drone strike, likely by Iran-backed Iraqi militias, on a Saudi pipeline moving 7 million barrels of oil daily toward the Red Sea — a pattern analysts see as coordination between Tehran and its proxies.Sima Shine, a former head of analysis at Mossad, said Iran is exploiting the pre-election window to drive up prices and pressure Trump on multiple fronts. Bahrain-based commentator Abdullah al-Junaid said a renewed U.S. campaign is unlikely given how thin American naval assets are.Citrinowicz said Iran is now close to choking off nearly all of Saudi Arabia's export routes. "What makes this particularly serious is that there is no obvious solution on the horizon, military or economic," he said.
Sep 15, 2026
Pentagon insider smears antifascists who unmasked Nazi terrorists later convicted by DOJ
Days after the State Department designated an Italian tech group as a terrorist entity, thousands of antifascist sites on its web hosting service wound up on a searchable online research tool described as an “anonymous blog network that quietly powers antifa.”Jennica Pounds, a Pentagon special government employee better known as Data Republican and the creator of the search tool, described the antifascist sites that she purported to expose as “a whole elaborate doxxing scheme that’s set to ruin people’s lives.”Unveiling the search tool last month, Pounds boasted: “DataRepublican.com strikes again.” Pounds wrote on X that “the militant far-left has spent years hiding in plain sight on Noblogs.org,” the web hosting platform of Autistici/Inventati, which was sanctioned by the State Department. “So on my own time, for free, I scraped the whole thing,” she said. “Because I kick commie *** and need no government funding or sanction for it.” But several of the sites and their associated social media accounts targeted by Pounds had unmasked violent extremists — long before the U.S. government targeted the same people for crimes ranging from doxxing and soliciting the murder of federal officials to plotting to attack the power grid and a foiled bank robbery.One of the violent extremists outed by the antifascist accounts, Terrorgram Collective co-leader Dallas Humber, is now serving a 30-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy to provide material support for terrorists, among other crimes. Following Humber’s arrest, the State Department under former President Joe Biden named Terrorgram as a specially designated global terrorist entity. Ironically, it’s the same designation that Autistici/Inventati has now received from the Trump State Department.“I have no objection to people who accurately report on violent extremists,” Pounds told Raw Story. She added that otherwise she would be a hypocrite to call Andy Ngo, a conservative writer who focuses on “antifa” and the far left, “a good friend.”Pounds said she archived and indexed more than 40,000 NoBlogs articles and found 1,717 “quotes” with personally identifiable information, including names and addresses of parents and children of the individuals targeted in the doxxes. In one example, she said a minor child’s name, date of birth and home address were published. In total, Pounds said she redacted 1,487 names, 483 street addresses, 327 workplaces, 151 phone numbers and 37 license plates from the website contents she included in her searchable tool.Raw Story could not independently verify the numbers Pounds cited.Past reporting by Raw Story has drawn upon information uncovered by two of the antifascist sites targeted by Pounds’ online search tool: Arelephanteau and Appalachia Research Club.“You’re literally putting people’s lives at risk, because you disagree with them,” a co-host of the Patriot Source Network podcast said on a recent episode, in which Pounds appeared as a guest to provide a tutorial during the rollout of her search tool. The co-host, who goes by the handle PatriotDadEV, continued: “Because ultimately, what happens is it’s not just the people doing the doxxing on these criminal syndicate websites; then you have a bunch of crazy lunatics who are also on these sites that then take action on that…. This is literally an organized hit list, is what they’ve built.”Perusing Asheville Anti Racism, one of the sites that Pound scraped and then plugged into her database while applying the “doxxing” label, another co-host known as Nom De Plume expressed astonishment at the plethora of information on a member of Goyim Defense League, a group the Anti-Defamation League has described as engaging “in antisemitic stunts and schemes to troll and harass Jewish communities and individuals.” Nom De Plume noted that the antifascist dossier on the GDL member included their PO box, personal email, vehicle make and model, license plate number and aliases.“I mean, this is crazy,” he said.Over the years, Goyim Defense League members have been hit with littering charges for distributing propaganda, and in 2025 one member was convicted of threatening to kill the top prosecutor in Nashville, Tennessee, based on screengrabs published by a contributor to GDL Exposed, another antifascist website flagged by Pounds.The charging document against GDL member David Bloyed included two screengrabs from his Telegram account, with one post showing him warning that District Attorney Glenn Funk would be “getting the rope,” while another depicted an individual hanging from a gallows with the notation, “The ‘Rope list’ grew by a few more Nashville jews today.”The screengrabs incorporated in Bloyed’s charging document were taken from a thread posted by an X user with the screenname “Trash.City” who is identified as a contributor to the GDL Exposed site.Stephen Rowlett, a detective assigned to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s Counter-Terrorism Section, testified during Bloyed’s May 2025 trial that when he saw Bloyed’s screengrabs, he viewed them as a threat to lynch the district attorney, according to a transcript reviewed by Raw Story. Rowlett testified that he didn’t know who Bloyed was until he “had seen all of these posts being put” on the Trash.City X account.Bloyed was found guilty and is currently serving a three-year prison sentence.“The goal of GDL Exposed is to push back against the neo-Nazi organization Goyim Defense League by unmasking their activists who travel around the country harassing people,” a representative of the site told Raw Story. “The GDL is led by Jon Minadeo, whose primary source of income is video chatting with children and rebroadcasting those recordings to thousands of angry neo-Nazis, without the knowledge or consent of the children or their parents.“These videos have included support for mass shooters such as the Antioch High School shooter in Nashville, who was found to have shared a GDL flyer. Data Republican is right. We do hope to ruin these people’s lives. They are predators who would kill every non-white and Jewish person on earth if they could.”The unmasking of one of the most significant figures in the neo-Nazi accelerationist movement in the past five years was a collaborative effort by four anonymous antifascist research accounts, according to a report on Dallas Humber by HuffPost published in March 2023. Two of the accounts, SoCal Research Club and Fash Free NW, are targeted in Pounds’ NoBlogs search tool. A separate article about Humber that was published by the outlet Left Coast Right Watch a day earlier lists SoCal Research Club as a co-author.The article co-authored by SoCal Research Club describes Humber as being “deeply involved with the online network of violent, militant bigots known as Terrorgram.” The article goes on to note that following a 2023 mass shooting that took the lives of two people at a LGBTQ+ bar in Slovakia, Humber exploited the murder spree for propaganda purposes by recording an audiobook of the killer’s manifesto.Eighteen months later, the government unveiled an indictment against Humber and co-defendant Matthew Robert Allison by charging them with a slew of felonies, including solicitation of hate crimes, solicitation of the murder of federal officials, doxing of federal officials, interstate threatening communications, distribution of information relating to explosives and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, while identifying her as a leader of a transnational terrorist group.“I am left with the troubling knowledge that me and my family were unprotected and completely exposed while there was literally a target with my name on it circulating among white supremacist groups on the internet,” a former U.S. attorney who is a Black woman told the court during Humber’s sentencing in December 2025, describing a kill list distributed by Terrorgram. “Thank God my family and I were not hurt or killed during this time. This knowledge has turned to near constant fear and anxiety.”Before Humber received her sentence of 30 years in prison, federal prosecutor Christopher Perras told the court: “She was responsible for inciting a mass shooting in Bratislava, Slovakia at an LGBT bar, a mass stabbing outside a mosque in Turkey, and a school shooting in Aracruz, Brazil that left teachers and children dead. Because of this defendant, innocent men, women, and children around the world are dead.”The first site listed on the dashboard for Pounds’ NoBlogs search tool is CV Antifa. In November 2022, the site identified two men, Michael Brown Jr. and Luke Kenna, while linking them to a Telegram channel called Aryan Compartmented Elements that posted photos of a technical institute and community college in Pennsylvania as seen through gunsights. The antifascist site assessed: “It seems clear that they intend to commit acts of mass violence.”The following month, Brown and Kenna were charged by the FBI with conspiracy to commit bank robbery. Both men, described by the government as having “a professed allegiance to white supremacist and Nazi ideologies,” ultimately pleaded guilty and received sentences of 37 and 41 years in prison, respectively.Following Brown and Kenna’s arrests, a bulletin by the South Dakota Office of Homeland Security Fusion Center flagged a Telegram post demanding the release of the two men, while warning that “failure to do so will result in more attacks on infrastructure.” The charges against the two men came less than two weeks after an attack on two electrical substations in North Carolina that left much of Moore County in darkness for four days.In January 2024, the anonymous researchers published an article on SoCal Research Club’s NoBlogs site that identified a “3-D printing gunsmith” named Skyler Philippi as one of the men who had posted the demand for Brown and Kenna’s release. The other was Brian Tierney, who had been charged with conspiracy to commit bank robbery alongside Brown and Kenna at the time the article was published.The article, which also credits Fash Free NW, along with two outfits that are not included in Pounds’ online research tool, cites Telegram posts by Philippi bragging that he left 80 pounds of the explosive Tannerite in the walls of a house in New Hampshire “as a last resort option in case of capture or kill.” The article warned that Philippi and Tierney “genuinely appear to be nihilistic, full-fledged believers in the need for accelerationist tactics to bring about societal collapse.”Ten months after Philippi was unmasked by antifascist researchers, law enforcement arrested him as he was preparing to attach explosives to a drone and fly it into an electrical substation outside of Nashville.Philippi ultimately pleaded guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy an energy facility. He is currently awaiting sentencing.“Your three examples establish that NoBlogs doxxed some people who later committed serious crimes,” Pounds told Raw Story. “In my opinion, these three examples do not justify the existence of a full-blown doxxing global platform publishing the names and addresses and employers of thousands of people, many of them innocent.”Pounds recently wrote on X recently that she “went out of my way to redact personally identifying information “in far-left doxxing of Patriot Front,” a white nationalist group. Patriot Front members were sued for defacing a mural of the Black tennis player Arthur Ashe, based on information uncovered by an antifascist infiltrator. The FBI declined to comment in response to a query from Raw Story about whether federal investigators relied on any of the information published by antifascist researchers to build cases against Humber, Brown, Kenna and Philippi. But a statement of facts by an FBI task force officer with a background in counterterrorism investigations cites research by Atlanta Antifascists to support charges against a Jan. 6 defendant. The group’s site was hosted by NoBlogs, but is not included in Pounds’ online search tool.With Autistici/Inventati shutting down in response to the State Department sanctions, the antifascist sites in the U.S. and elsewhere will need to find new hosting services, but those that spoke to Raw Story indicated they have no intention of quitting. In the meantime, volunteers are uploading the contents of some 60 antifascist sites to the Internet Archive.“My goals are to make people aware of white supremacists, fascists and bigots who mean them harm, and to disrupt organized fascism and white supremacy,” “Arel,” the owner of the North Carolina-based Arelephanteau site, told Raw Story. “It sucks that those goals are not aligned with whatever this person [Pounds] thinks our world should look like. I am choosing to hope that they have not actually immersed themselves in the worldview of the people they are trying to protect. Antifascism is creative, resilient, and community-oriented, so while this repression tactic is annoying and politically dark, it isn’t insurmountable.”In her post announcing the NoBlogs search tool, Pounds hinted that there may be a grander design to her project than publicly embarrassing antifascist researchers.“In the course of building this website, a number of antifascists were identified,” she wrote. “I disclosed them — but not on the website. Directly to the USA government.”
Sep 15, 2026
Imran Khan’s sons accuse Pakistani army chief of vendetta against imprisoned father
Kasim and Sulaiman Khan tell Guardian they believe ex-PM is being ‘slowly killed’ by harsh treatment, driven by Asim MunirThe sons of Imran Khan have accused Pakistan’s powerful army chief of a “personal vendetta” against the incarcerated former prime minister and expressed fears their father is being “slowly killed” in jail, as international pressure mounts over his prison conditions.Kasim Khan, 27, and Sulaiman Khan, 29, have become strong advocates for the release of their father, who has been held in Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since his arrest in 2023, and is serving a 14-year sentence on corruption charges. Continue reading...
Sep 15, 2026
What would it take to make India’s cities better – and safer?
After a five-storey building collapsed in Delhi, focus is on how urban areas can adapt to growing populations. Plus, Ahmedabad’s ace newspaper delivery driver goes viral• Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereRecently, I may have saved a woman’s life on the road. Somehow, this was something I had expected to happen.On that day, I saw a truck leave a construction site with a tangled wire trailing behind. I frantically looked to see what the wire was attached to and spotted the scaffolding a few meters ahead. I shrieked and grabbed the hand of the woman walking in front of me just as the metal pipes came crashing down. We hugged for a brief second, and then walked our separate ways. Continue reading...
Sep 14, 2026
AI-linked stocks slide after tech bosses call for slowdown in ‘reckless’ development
Donald Trump dismisses attempts to increase controls on artificial intelligence as ‘sick conspiracy’ AI-linked stocks tumbled on Monday after the bosses of Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX called for a slowdown in AI “reckless” development, citing fears the technology could soon run out of control.Shares in the semiconductor designer Nvidia – the world’s most valuable company – were down 3.3% by market closing in New York City, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) slid 4% and Micron Technology and Sandisk shares slumped by 5%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index fund was down 0.5% by the end of the day. Continue reading...
Sep 13, 2026
Trump caves on tariff after chat with Irish Open winner: 'It was pretty unfair'
President Donald Trump caved Sunday on one of the tariffs he implemented against one of America's key trading partners last year. Trump announced during a press conference that he was removing the 15% tariff he placed on Irish whiskey in April 2025. The announcement came after Trump attended the Irish Open trophy ceremony, held at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland. "It was very unfair because others have the relief, and they did. So, I thought I'd do it," Trump told reporters at Shannon Airport before he traveled back to the U.S. Trump added that he talked about the tariff with professional golfer Shane Lowry, who won the Irish Open. "Shane asked me about it; everyone has," Trump said. "It was pretty unfair, so I decided to do it." Q: The whiskey tariffs are an EU tariff. Are you taking it off all EU countries?TRUMP: A lot of people asked me about. It was pretty unfair, so I decided to do thatQ: On just Ireland, or all of the EU?TRUMP: Just Ireland pic.twitter.com/AWoRjHuWk8— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 13, 2026
Sep 13, 2026
Trump’s Iran leverage crumbles as new ‘inflationary shock’ threat materializes: experts
A startling development in the Middle East has both weakened President Donald Trump's negotiating position with Iran and threatened to trigger a new global “inflationary shock,” two experts told Al Jazeera this weekend.On Friday, the Iran-backed Houthis — the Yemeni militant and governmental organization — captured Mayyun island, which divides the Bab al-Mandab Strait — a major global shipping chokepoint — into two distinct channels. This comes after the Houthis reportedly took control of the entirety of Yemen’s west coast, which sits along the Bab al-Mandab Strait.Back in July, the Houthis launched a blockade of all Saudi Arabian oil shipments passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which, with the group’s new dominance over the territory, now makes traversal through the waterway a “very risky endeavor if the Houthis don’t allow it,” warned Wolfgang Pusztai, a security and policy analyst.Pusztai argued that Iran also benefits from the move, gaining fresh leverage over another global chokepoint and making its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz “even more efficient.”Farea Al-Muslimi, a research fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, concurred with Pusztai that the Houthis’ capture of Mayyun island strengthened Iran’s negotiating position with the United States. Economist Javed Hassan further warned that a global supply shock could soon emerge should the Houthis further disrupt trade through the strait.“War-risk insurance and charter rates can rise before cargoes are formally interrupted, and the resulting pressure extends beyond oil into container shipping, dry bulk and the wider cost of traded goods,” Hassan told Al Jazeera. “The technical supply shock from Houthi attacks therefore becomes an inflationary shock through several commodities at once.”The development comes as oil prices continue to climb, with diesel costs in the United States reaching levels so high that some gas stations have reportedly been unable to display the correct price.
Sep 13, 2026
Trump dodges question on Irish protests with bizarre 'compliment' to female reporter
President Donald Trump was asked Sunday about his thoughts on the mass protests in Dublin, Ireland against his visit, but ignored the question and instead issued the female reporter a bizarre “compliment.”“Mr. President, did you see any footage of the protests against your visit here in Dublin, and what do you make of that opposition?” a female reporter can be heard asking Trump.After a brief pause, Trump instead decided to compliment the female reporter on her looks.“You know, you remind me of somebody… a great Irish singer who passed away recently. Do you know who that is?” Trump asked. “Sinéad! You look like Sinéad O'Connor! And that's a compliment! She sang beautifully.”Trump’s visit to Ireland was met with opposition as locals flocked to the streets of Dublin with crude balloons and other anti-Trump displays to protest the president’s visit.O’Connor, the famous Irish singer-songwriter whose songs touched on human and women’s rights issues, died in 2023 at the age of 56 from a chronic health condition. O’Connor had also publicly criticized Trump, calling him a “devil” in 2020.When asked of his thoughts on the Dublin protests against his visit to Ireland, Trump ignores the question and bizarrely compliments the female journalist by saying she "looks like" the late Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor pic.twitter.com/yMhMjuuXQw— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) September 13, 2026
Sep 13, 2026
Cheers as Irish president tells Trump off to his face: ‘She read him out!’
Irish President Catherine Connolly revealed the stern message she issued to President Donald Trump during their recent private meeting, sparking a chorus of cheers Sunday from critics.Connolly met with Trump in Dublin on Saturday at her official residence, and, according to the Irish Examiner, made clear that the Trump administration’s foreign policy was at odds with the wishes of the Irish people.“I conveyed the strong view of the Irish people that the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted,” Connolly said, referencing her meeting with Trump.“As a country which has suffered famine, colonisation and the violence of the Troubles, but also the importance of the long and challenging road to peace, I emphasised the unique insight which Irish people can bring to the resolution of conflict.”In perhaps a more subtle message to Trump, Connolly also gifted the U.S. president a collection of poems, which notably included the poem “Ceasefire” by the famous Irish poet Michael Longley.“Bravo,” wrote Australian journalist and author Peter FitzSimons in a social media post on X, responding to reports of Connolly’s message to Trump.A photograph of Trump walking in front of Connolly with a serious expression on his face also drew considerable attention from Trump’s critics.“She read him out!” wrote American historian and author Max Dashu in a social media post on X. “He has the same expression as after his secret meeting with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin in Helsinki, the one that no US translators were allowed to witness.”And Sara Salyers, a prominent Scottish independence activist and former journalist, quipped: “When a picture paints a thousand words!”
Sep 13, 2026
'Unprecedented' UK shift emerges day into Trump's Ireland visit: report
An “unprecedented” summit is scheduled to discuss a deal designed to “break-up the United Kingdom,” The Telegraph exclusively reported Sunday, a major development that comes just one day after President Donald Trump landed in Ireland.Leaders of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are expected to meet Monday in Wales’ capital to discuss launching referendums to declare their independence from the United Kingdom, according to the report.Just two days before The Telegraph’s report, Trump made the controversial remark that it would be “fantastic” if Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland unified, The New York Times reported, breaking with “decades of U.S. neutrality on an issue rooted in a long history of violence.”Centuries of British rule brought land seizures, famine and violent suppression of Irish independence movements, culminating in the island's partition in 1921. Decades of sectarian violence known as the “Troubles" followed, ending with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which established that any change to Northern Ireland's status would require a referendum.“Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, there is a potential pathway for an Irish reunification poll to be held,” The Telegraph’s report reads.“It states that a referendum should be staged if it 'appears likely' that a majority of people in Northern Ireland would vote to leave the UK... All three parties will agree that their nations should be in the EU, Scotland and Wales as new members and Northern Ireland as part of the Republic of Ireland.”
Sep 13, 2026
Triggered Trump hurls insults at NYT after apparent ceremony nap spurs uproar
President Donald Trump — days after appearing to nap during a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony at the Pentagon — hurled accusations at the New York Times of insensitivity over its coverage on the historic day.Trump on Sunday shared a post from the Department of the Interior press office apparently condemning the New York Times for publishing reports on its botched renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool."On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the New York Times spent time and resources analyzing the Reflecting Pool," the comment stated. "They continue to avoid doing any real reporting on all the vandalism."The Times report revealed the contractor that renovated the Reflecting Pool told the Trump administration that internal errors, not vandalism, caused problems with its lining.It's worth noting that in 2002 the New York Times won a record-breaking seven Pulitzer prizes for its coverage of the tragic terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001.Its journalists raced toward Ground Zero to document the explosive flames, the bloodied victims, and the first responders who sacrificed their lives to save others. Trump, meanwhile, skipped the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero — where former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were in attendance — and opted instead to give a speech at the Pentagon. The president has also come under fire this week for increasingly bold claims about his own efforts following the attacks on the twin towers. "Trump has long talked about his 9/11 response, saying he spent a lot of time at Ground Zero and brought hundreds of workers to aid in the recovery effort," a Politifact report states. "PolitiFact previously found no evidence that Trump brought hundreds of workers to the site, and other fact-checkers have similarly found the evidence lacking. Trump World Tower was under development in 2001 in Midtown Manhattan, about 5 miles from the World Trade Center."
