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President Donald Trump’s Sunday decision to side with North Korea over South Korea and then threaten another ally appears to have been the last straw for a contributor to the conservative National Review.Trump rattled two allies within days of each other this week, threatening to bomb Oman while ordering the Pentagon to pull back from decades-old military drills with South Korea.On Monday, as the U.S.-Iran ceasefire expired amid disputes over the Strait of Hormuz, Trump told Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst: "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s--t out of them,” leading critics to wonder why the president would threaten to bomb a nation widely seen as a neutral U.S. ally.Sunday night, the president ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises that have run since the 1970s to deter North Korea.According to the president, the exercises are "totally inappropriate and hostile" to North Korea, as he described strongman Kim Jong Un's regime as "unthreatening and respectful."On X, radiologist and National Review writer Dr. Pradheep Shanker was more than stunned.“So in the last couple days: 1. Trump threatened to bomb ally Oman. 2. Applauded a defense pact between the Saudis and Pakistan. 3. Claimed North Korea is more peaceful than South Korea,” he wrote.He then added, “ If this keeps going on, we may have to question his sanity. Seriously.”He later noted, to his dismay, that the president is kicking the Iran War can down the road again.Reacting to a report stating: “The US and Iran have reportedly agreed to extend their 60-day ceasefire which was set to expire today,” he responded, “This is truly pathetic. I'm almost getting to the point where random Democrats would be handling this better than Trump is.”

At least 2,325 people have died from the virus, according to official data, with outbreak on track to be biggest in historyThe Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is now the deadliest in the country’s history, with at least 2,325 people dead, according to government data, surpassing the toll from the 2018-20 outbreak.The DRC’s public health institute said confirmed cases had risen to 4,945, including 101 detected in the previous 24 hours. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump's White House is keeping mum after being alerted to a possible inner-circle phone hacking and security breach.According to a report from Politico, newly installed British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been engaging with messages from somebody impersonating one of Donald Trump's closest advisers, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.Downing Street declined to comment on the matter. One person briefed on the communications told Politico that a "few messages" were exchanged after Burnham entered No. 10 but insisted they were "of no significance."The British embassy in Washington was concerned enough about the incident to raise it with the White House, according to two of the officials who were granted anonymity to discuss a national security issue.With the U.K. government raising concerns that Wiles' phone had been hacked, the White House reportedly has clammed up and has refused to comment.According to the report, "Last year, the White House and the FBI launched an investigation after senators, governors and U.S. business executives received texts and phone calls from someone claiming to be Trump’s chief of staff. The Wall Street Journal reported that Wiles told associates her cellphone contacts had been hacked."What was discussed in the exchange with Burnham and when the messages were sent remains unclear, with the erroneous contact kept as a closely guarded secret," Politico is reporting.

President Donald Trump stoked alarm on Sunday after he adhered to a foreign dictator's demands to reduce U.S. military exercises with South Korea. Trump announced on Truth Social that he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to reduce the scale of the joint military exercises conducted between the U.S. and South Korea. The move came just days after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un described the exercises as a threat to his regime, and promised to escalate retaliatory threats in response. "These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful," Trump wrote. Trump's announcement rankled political analysts and observers across the political spectrum, some of whom shared their reactions on social media. "God help us," Ken Gardner, a political commentator, posted on X. "North Korea just provided Russia with thousands of missiles to attack Ukraine. Russia is working with Iran to murder U.S. citizens," Laura Loomer, a MAGA influencer, posted on X. "I wouldn’t exactly call North Korea unthreatening and respectful, personally, now that we know Russia has been giving weapons and satellite imagery to Iran to kill U.S. soldiers.""Helping North Korea even as they send 50,000 troops to help Putin. Almost seems as if it’s coordinated. Almost seems as if Vladimir Putin is acting as the White House chief of staff," Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic and a political scientist, posted on X. "Russia before Ukraine and now N Korea before S. Korea. We have now lost international credibility," Jeff Storobinsky, host of the "In Front of Us" podcast, posted on X.

Campaigners fear deeper diplomatic contacts are undermining demands for improvements in human rights The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses.Five years after the Taliban took power, an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare. Continue reading...

CNN anchor Jake Tapper highlighted a moment from President Donald Trump's speech on Friday that could serve as an attack ad for Democrats ahead of the midterms.Trump said he would "never apologize" for higher gas prices even though Americans are struggling to pay for rising costs at the pump during a speech at the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City, New York. Trump touted his crackdown on crime and the ongoing Iran war at a campaign rally with Republican gubernatorial candidate and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.Tapper commented on the president's remarks."So I have to say that is made for a Democratic attack ad, not all of it, not the part about Iran and the nukes, but for you to pay a little bit more for the gasoline cut to, 'you're at $4. It's OK. I'll never apologize. I did the right thing,'" Tapper said.Matt Mowers, former senior White House adviser during Trump's first administration, argued Trump was defending his decision to launch a joint military operation with Israel against Iran."I think it's explaining the cost of conflict, right?" Mowers said. "What he's now doing is saying there is a reason that we are all paying more for [gas] right now. What he didn't do, and I think this was actually smart politically, is he didn't try to say, 'well, it's actually not that high.' He didn't try to pooh-pooh it. He didn't try to dismiss concerns."Tapper pushed back. "He said a little bit more. That's kind of a pooh-pooh," Tapper said. Tapper added that Trump's statement might not be popular among the GOP."It's probably not the message that Republican candidates want the president to be saying, with only 80-something days until the midterms," Tapper said.

A U.S. service member's wife had a blunt response on Friday for President Donald Trump after he dismissed reports of poor conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, even as families expressed serious concerns about their loved ones.CNN anchor Jake Tapper spoke with the unnamed woman, who shared that she could not identify herself over concerns for her husband's safety and career. Tapper asked what her reaction was to Trump's remarks after the president said he did not think the deployment was "long enough." Nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines have been deployed on the warship for nine months in the Arabian Sea during the Iran war."Oh my God! I don't think the man thinks before he talks," she said. "I was really hoping that at some point there would be a redemption. Try to redeem yourself at least a little bit with everything that you do and everything that you say. Have some empathy. Take some accountability for what's going on with your military, your ships, and your war. It's infuriating." She slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump for their comments dismissing the reports of deteriorating conditions and low morale among the troops."What the president is saying today, essentially saying that families are lying and service members are lying, even though the proof is right here on my phone, it is not fabricated," she said. "Nobody is lying."She criticized the Trump administration for not showing sympathy for service members "that they claim to scream and shout that they support when it's politically sound for them to use, 'support our troops, support our troops' until our troops need support. And now suddenly everyone's lying. And it's a fabrication and it's a misrepresentation.""I would so badly love to plaster my face and blow the whistle so loud on social media with my name and be like, 'this is real. We are real people. Those are real people on that ship. This is actually happening.' But unfortunately, I have to protect my husband's career."

Win is significant for region’s premier, Doug Ford, who blames protected zones for city’s traffic illsThe Ontario government is now free to rip out Toronto’s bike lanes on its busiest streets after the region’s top court ruled in favour of the province on Friday, overturning a lower court’s decision that decreed removal would violate constitutional rights.The win is significant for Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, and his government, who have long railed against Toronto’s bike lanes, blaming the protected zones for the city’s traffic ills. Continue reading...