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Sep 29, 2026 - World

A startling claim from President Donald Trump's ambassador to China reveals "something profoundly amiss" in how the administration handles one of America's most consequential rivalries, according to a new analysis by MS NOW's Zeeshan Aleem.Ambassador David Perdue told Fox News on Sunday that Trump, while discussing U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit last week, told Xi, "Hey, we sell arms to other people around the world," and then "actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point?"Trump has denied the account, but statements from the White House and State Department to The New York Times did not dispute that the remarks were made, saying only that no offer or plan to sell arms to China currently exists."This scenario, if true, is mind-boggling," Aleem wrote. If Perdue was wrong, it "would not just be a major lie, but a foolish one."China is the lone nation capable of challenging U.S. military supremacy, the columnist noted, and Washington works hard to protect its technological advantage, which is why reports that sensitive F-35 components were diverted to Hong Kong are alarming. Arming Beijing would also contradict Trump's request that Xi limit support for Iran.Such a sale would upend the One China framework in place since 1979, under which the U.S. formally acknowledges Beijing's position while supplying Taiwan with billions of dollars in defensive weapons.Selling arms to China "would be akin to scoring an own goal," Aleem wrote.The episode fits a familiar pattern, according to the analysis, of Trump alienating democratic allies while cozying up to authoritarian leaders. The columnist suggested Trump, facing a cost-of-living crisis and a faltering trade war with China, may have been searching for any deal Xi might accept. Trump previously paused a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan in May after meeting with Xi.The columnist also faulted Perdue for revealing what a capable diplomat would have kept quiet."The capitals of the world are always watching Washington closely," Aleem concluded. "This episode shows a president who seems to have fewer and fewer wits about him — and a staff that lacks the competence or willpower to make up for it."

Sep 29, 2026 - World

The White House boasted about 1,750 jobs that would be created from a new $15 billion steel plant announced by President Donald Trump, but several right-wing figures expressed outrage Tuesday as details about the project began to emerge.The steel mill will be constructed by Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota-based company that carries years of baggage, including project delays, bankruptcy, unpaid contractors and disputes with Minnesota state officials. However, what frustrated right-wing figures was not the company’s financial struggles, but rather its use of the H-1B visa program.“Mesabi Metallics is owned by an India-based company and is already an H1B sponsor,” wrote Grace Chong, the chief operating officer for “War Room,” the program run by Trump’s former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. “So how many of the 1,750 jobs at its new Iowa steel plant will actually go to American workers?”Mesabi Metallics is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Essar Group, an India-based conglomerate whose portfolio companies had aggregate annual revenues of around $15 billion as of January 2025. Mesabi Metallics has already sponsored workers through the U.S. H-1B visa program, a federal program allowing employers “who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce” to sponsor foreign workers for employment.Critics have scrutinized employers’ use of the program, accusing companies of relying on it for “cheap labor” and using it as a tool to “prevent union organizing.”“Trump brags about bringing in a steel company and come to find out it’s from India and already uses H1B visas to import workers,” wrote former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in a social media post on X Tuesday.“MAGA is so America Last it’s almost comical at this point. Oh but we have to stop the communists Democrats!! Meanwhile Trump [loves New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani and [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping]!”Trump brags about bringing in a steel company and come to find out it’s from India and already uses H1B visas to import workers.MAGA is so America Last it’s almost comical at this point.Oh but we have to stop the communists Democrats!!Meanwhile Trump ❤️’s Mamdani and Xi!!???? https://t.co/OXyKVG9p9h— Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene???????? (@FmrRepMTG) September 29, 2026

Sep 29, 2026 - World

The Trump administration remained silent when pressed this week on the arrest and alleged abuse of an American teenager by the Israeli government, Zeteo exclusively reported on Tuesday.According to Zeteo’s Prem Thakker, an American teenager “with Texas roots,” Abdalkareem Issa Ahmed Safi, was taken from his home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank “in the middle of the night” in late June, and as of Tuesday, is still being held in an Israeli prison on administrative detention, an order that allows the government to imprison individuals without charge or trial.Safi’s father told Zeteo he had “no information” about his son, that he was “deeply concerned about his health” after being told by a U.S. embassy official that he claimed to have been beaten on his first day of detention, and that his detention may be indefinitely renewed.When pressed for comment on Safi, who was detained days before his 18th birthday, the Trump White House, the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Israel did not respond.According to Zeteo, Safi is being held at Ofer prison, a facility in the West Bank where inmates have reportedly been subjected to “frequent beatings, overcrowding and withholding of basic rations,” according to the Associated Press. Safi’s father also told Zeteo that he feared his son is suffering from scabies, a contagious skin infestation, which he claimed to have been told by a prisoner released from an Israeli prison.Safi is just one of at least three young Americans currently being held in Israeli prisons, with Safi’s cousin, Sama Safi, being among them.“In early June, in the middle of the night, Israeli officers raided 20-year-old Sama Safi’s home in Ramallah. She was then held without formal charges for weeks,” Zeteo’s report reads. “Eventually, authorities accused her of involvement with a student organization they allege is affiliated with a ‘terrorist group.’ Sama Safi, who has ties to Tampa, Florida, denies the allegations. She suffers from a chronic medical condition that can cause severe fevers and pain. And yet after nearly 16 weeks, she remains in prison, with inadequate access to food and medical care.”Adam Karakrah, a 16-year-old American “with ties to Chicago," is the third known young American being held in an Israeli prison. Israeli authorities reportedly disregarded Karakrah’s U.S. citizenship.“When I showed them his U.S. passport and birth certificate, they didn’t even ask [about it], they threw them in my face,” Karakrah’s sister previously told Zeteo.

Sep 29, 2026 - World

As outrage grows over cases​ of sexual violence, activists are demanding a shift from controlling women to confronting men’s behaviour. Plus, Tony Klor’s ‘hella dope’ city vlogs• Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereAs an Indian woman, I often feel myself oscillating between states of anxiety or anger. The anxiety is about doing the mental maths of how to stay safe – thinking about what I’m wearing, where I am going and how I’ll get there, and so on. The anger is at the sheer absurdity of this, and the stories of of sexual violence and harassment I read about every day. I am not the only one.Last week, two particularly enraging incidents captured national attention. First, a video showing a group of men accused of harassing and molesting two teenagers at night in Bihar’s Jamui went viral. Then, a 17-year-old, out with a friend in Delhi, was allegedly gang-raped in a park by men posing as police. After, women in Bihar told Outlook how the incident in Jamui triggers greater controls and pressure on them. In Delhi, authorities curbed access to public parks and a premier women’s college, Lady Shri Ram College (LSR), briefly moved classes online. Continue reading...

Sep 29, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's war in Iran has cost Americans in a number of obvious ways, MS NOW's Rachel Maddow said on Monday — but it is costing them in a number of subtler and more insidious ways too.Nothing demonstrates this better, she explained, than a possible terror threat that didn't even affect the United States — a set of five men in suspicious vans who were arrested in the U.K., which raised immediate alarms there.In July, Maddow explained, "Iran told the U.K. explicitly that if any British base was used by the U.S. military for this war against Iran, that would make that base in the U.K. a legitimate military target for Iran," said Maddow. Now, she said, when today we learn "that five young men had been arrested and those vans were seized outside the gates of this rural air base, well, there was, for obvious reasons, lots and lots of speculation about who these five young men might be and what this might have all been about. Lots of speculation, lots of worry, and then lots of head scratching."The investigation is only beginning, Maddow said, even as the five were granted bail. But it highlights security threats that could soon reach the United States, too."Here in the United States, it raises an important question about the cost of Trump's war in Iran," said Maddow. "Raises the question as to whether the cost of Trump's war in Iran is something that we've really adequately grappled with. Is it a cost that's not just going to be measured in lives lost and people injured and buildings destroyed, and facilities and aircraft and equipment destroyed, and the shuttering of the Strait of Hormuz and all the other oil transit routes and infrastructure that have driven your gas and gas and diesel prices and fertilizer prices to all-time record highs, the multi-billion dollar cost just of anti-aircraft munitions alone, let alone all the other missiles and materiel we have expended in this war."All of these are well known, Maddow said. But beyond that, the U.K. incident "raises this very uncomfortable question for us Americans as to whether there's an additional cost of this war, which might be an additional risk for us here at home of potential retaliatory violence against us by Iran or its proxies or its sympathizers."Unfortunately, Maddow said, the U.S. could have a hard time dealing with these threats, because Trump's administration just reassigned Michael Burgwald and Courtland Rae, two of the most important FBI officials investigating terror threats from the Middle East. - YouTube youtu.be