Author: Claire Carter, Washington Examiner

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of intentionally trying to “drag out negotiations” and stalling progress as a new round of U.S.-mediated peace talks concluded Wednesday with no breakthrough toward ending the nearly four-year war. Peace efforts aimed at halting the conflict that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 have stalled repeatedly. “Yesterday’s…

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that the country’s nuclear industry is “our undeniable right,” issuing a fresh warning to the United States as fragile negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program are set to take place in Geneva.  In a series of posts on X, Khamenei defended Iran’s uranium enrichment and broader nuclear infrastructure, a…

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission opened an investigation Tuesday into Elon Musk‘s X and its artificial intelligence tool Grok for producing sexualized images, including images of children. The inquiry, announced by Ireland’s privacy watchdog under section 110 of the Data Protection Act of 2018, targets X Internet Unlimited Company, the Dublin-based entity that manages X’s operations…

War Department officials said Monday that U.S. military forces seized a Venezuela-linked oil tanker that Indo-Pacific Command tracked down from the Caribbean Sea to the Indian Ocean. “The Aquila II was operating in defiance of President Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” the War Department posted on X. “It ran, and we…

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he has chosen Colin McDonald to serve as the inaugural head of a newly created Department of Justice division focused on combating fraud nationwide. In a Truth Social post, Trump said he was pleased to nominate McDonald, a longtime federal prosecutor, to head the department he created “to catch…

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) said on Tuesday that he “would beat the s*** out of” Vice President JD Vance if given the chance, a remark that underscored his frustration with calls for bipartisanship amid escalating political tensions over immigration and enforcement. Walz made the comment during an interview with Tim Miller on the Bulwark…

The Iranian government announced Wednesday that weeks of anti-government protests have come to an end after 25 days. Mohammad Movahedi, Iran’s prosecutor general, announced that the “sedition is over now,” signaling the end of a movement that challenged the clerical regime’s authority for nearly a month. Iranian state television released its first death toll on…

Israeli forces moved into East Jerusalem early Tuesday with bulldozers to demolish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency headquarters, citing significant national security and terrorism concerns regarding the agency’s operation in the area.  The operation, conducted under the supervision of Israeli lawmakers and government officials, follows the recent confiscation of agency devices and the…

Pope Leo XIV delivered his most forceful rebuke yet of abortion and surrogacy Friday, categorically rejecting both practices as offenses to human dignity in a wide-ranging address to the diplomatic corps.  The first U.S.-born pope used the annual exchange of New Year greetings with ambassadors as a platform to anchor Catholic teaching on the sanctity…

The House Oversight Committee has escalated its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, threatening former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with contempt of Congress if they fail to appear for depositions. A House Oversight Committee spokeswoman said Friday that the Clintons have not confirmed their attendance to testify. The committee has scheduled the…