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May 14, 2026 - World

Trump administration officials once called high gas prices the Biden administration's "Achilles' heel" — but now it appears that could have come back to haunt them, according to a new Reuters report on Thursday.The political and economic backlash over the Iran war has left the White House struggling to address the skyrocketing price of oil as the prospect of a quick end to the military operation looks increasingly unlikely, three Trump administration insiders familiar with the conversations told Reuters."U.S. President Donald Trump this week backed suspending the federal gas tax, a step that would knock 18 cents a gallon off motor fuel prices currently averaging more than $4.50 a gallon nationwide," Reuters reported. "Once viewed by some White House aides as unnecessary, the idea is gaining urgency as officials run low on options to show they are tackling rising costs, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations."As prices have climbed, the president needs "a visible consumer relief move now," one of the White House insiders said."Historically, $4-per-gallon gasoline has been a level that triggers public backlash and economic anxiety," Reuters reported.AAA data has revealed that seven states have already passed the $5 a gallon mark.And as consumer sentiment drops to a record low and consumer inflation hit 3.8 percent this April — the highest it has been in nearly three years — more Americans are experiencing economic strain as gas prices climb and U.S. households are already paying the price.With midterm elections in November, Republicans have started pressuring Trump and his administration as they worry that affordability concerns among voters could ultimately push Republicans out of majority in the House of Representatives — and potentially the Senate."They feel like that’s their largest vulnerability right now: that specific cost, gas, not overall economic conditions," an unnamed White House political adviser told Reuters."The toughest thing, too, is that we made gas prices the Achilles' heel for (former President Joe) Biden and now it's our own."Taylor Rogers, White House spokesperson, said that the president and his energy team had expected the Iran war would create repercussions for global energy markets and had anticipated they needed a plan to address it."The ability to supply both the United States and our allies with reliable, affordable, and secure energy has long been a key strategic objective of President Trump, and his successful efforts to unleash American oil and gas has achieved this objective," Rogers told Reuters.

May 14, 2026 - World

Judge called Adriana Maria Quiroz Zapata’s deportation to the Democratic Republic of Congo ‘likely illegal’A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to bring a Colombian woman back to the US from the Democratic Republic of Congo, after she was deported to the African country that had refused to accept her.The deportation of Adriana María Quiroz Zapata “was likely illegal”, the US district judge Richard Leon ruled on Wednesday. Continue reading...

May 14, 2026 - World

Gautam Adani, richest man in Asia, was accused of conspiring to pay $250m in bribes to Indian government officialsThe US Department of Justice is dropping its fraud charges against the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, the richest man in Asia, after he hired a new legal team led by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, according to new reports.In an undisclosed April meeting at the justice department, Trump’s personal lawyer, Robert J Giuffra Jr, said that Adani would invest $10bn in the US economy and create 15,000 jobs if prosecutors dropped the charges against him, according to the New York Times and Bloomberg. Continue reading...

May 14, 2026 - World

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced backlash after he shared an animated video arguing that the Pentagon needed a massive $1.5 trillion for war preparations.In a social media post on Thursday, Hegseth called the funds a "GENERATIONAL DOWN PAYMENT on America's national defense.""We remain the strongest military power on Earth, but that power requires renewal," the defense secretary said in the video. "And with global threats that are constantly evolving, it's time to make a $1.5 trillion investment, a generational down payment. For far too long, Washington bureaucrats allowed America's defense industrial base to fall apart."The video featured a cartoon version of former President Joe Biden alongside a crumbling factory."The execution of operations Midnight Hammer, Southern Spear, Absolute Resolve, and Epic Fury are testaments to this restoration of strength," Hegseth crowed. "America's $1.5 trillion investment guarantees that the United States military will maintain this advantage against any adversary, anywhere, at any time."However, not all viewers of the cartoon were sold on Hegseth's pitch."How is this real?" author Jim Stewartson asked. "This is a pitch for $1.5 trillion and it looks like a bad Sora demo. The Pentagon is a clown show. What a tragedy.""Not for nothing, but the School House Rock vibe is bad," Lincoln Project strategist Reed Galen observed."More bullsh— from a bulls—er," Democratic author James Graham quipped."We've never seen a Secretary of a Cabinet position have to SELL the PRESIDENTS ideas with bad AI commercials," KRLL radio host Mark Bland commented.

May 14, 2026 - World

Former Ambassador Michael McFaul made a point of noting that President Donald Trump lavished extensive personal praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping, but Jinping did not return the favor.During an appearance on MS NOW Thursday, the former ambassador to Russia told anchor Erielle Reshef there was a striking difference between the two leaders' opening remarks that can only be interpreted as the fact that China has the upper hand in the historic meeting.“What is striking to me about the public remarks, just how effusive President Trump was in calling the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, a dictator and autocrat, a friend,” McFaul observed. “He just kept using the phrase ‘friend, friend, friend,’ ‘great leader, great leader, great leader.’”“Chairman Xi Jinping said nothing reciprocal to President Trump, to the best of my mind, unless I missed it,” he added. “I never heard him call the president his friend, or even called him a great leader. The asymmetry, I think, is striking — a position of weakness, frankly.” - YouTube youtu.be