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Oct 22, 2026 - World

Jared Kushner allegedly accessed a secret Gulf-funded bank account while Dutch spies watched his phone, and moved money to a warlord, a mercenary and a one-time hit man, according to an explosive new book.In an excerpt published Thursday by Vanity Fair, investigative journalist Matthew Cole wrote that Dutch military intelligence found screenshots of Kushner’s iPhone on a Russian military intelligence server, then exploited a flaw in the phone to watch his screen themselves starting in early 2018.They saw Kushner, then a senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, log into a UAE bank account that had received hundreds of millions of dollars routed through Azerbaijan, according to “Princes and Thieves.” A source told Cole that Kushner appeared to transfer significant sums from the account to other individuals, including the warlord, mercenary and former hit man.Cole alleges the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the UAE put at least $2 billion into at least two accounts for Kushner during Trump’s first term.“Jared promised MBZ that he’d push their agenda with Trump if they participated in a fund,” one source told Cole, referring to UAE ruler Mohamed bin Zayed.Kushner’s ties to Gulf money have drawn scrutiny before. After leaving the White House, his private equity firm, Affinity Partners, received a $2 billion investment from a Saudi sovereign wealth fund led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a deal that has drawn scrutiny from ethics watchdogs.The book cites mostly unnamed sources. Kushner’s lawyer told Cole that Kushner broke no laws and had no connection to any UAE account, adding that there “are no accounts and never were.”Kushner himself blasted the book on X.“The allegations made by this author are completely insane, categorically false, and never happened,” he wrote.

Oct 22, 2026 - World

The White House’s rapid-response account pushed back on a former New York Post correspondent who criticized envoy Steve Witkoff’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the Daily Beast.Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, told Putin during a Wednesday meeting, “You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again.”The same day, Trump said Putin had freed Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old retired American teacher held in Russia since 2022, after a personal plea and without asking for anything in return.Reporter Caitlin Doornbos responded on X, according to the Daily Beast. “I’m used to diplomatic pandering by now, but this? ????” she wrote. She followed up: “For my Republican strategist friends — where the headlines could have been, ‘President Trump brings home American wrongly imprisoned in Russia’ - Witkoff calling Putin a ‘humanitarian’ will be the only thing anyone talks about.”The White House’s Rapid Response 47 account fired back, the Daily Beast reported. “Should the Special Envoy have insulted the man, imperiled the release of an American citizen, and torched any possibility of finally resolving a war that has gone on for far too long?” the account asked. “These things are complicated. This is why you’re not a negotiator.”The Daily Beast’s Leigh Kimmins wrote, “Someone in the Trump administration nerve center is rattled.”Doornbos later responded, "The White House tried to put me in my place. I was already in a bomb shelter in Kyiv."MS NOW host Joe Scarborough also weighed in after Witkoff shared a post about Hubbard’s release. “Stephen was kidnapped and abused for FOUR YEARS by the dictator you just called a humanitarian,” Scarborough wrote. “Putin kidnaps Americans, assassinates political rivals, kills journalists, murders toddlers, and kidnaps thousands of children. And you call him a humanitarian. There are no words.”The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, writing about the release, said there is “no cause to be grateful” to Putin. The board called Witkoff’s praise a “rhetorical smooch.”The White House tried to put me in my place. I was already in a bomb shelter in Kyiv.Here’s what happened when I questioned Trump’s envoy calling Putin a “humanitarian” — and the response I got from the president’s own team. #ukraine https://t.co/n1veXqIOpy— Caitlin Doornbos (@CaitlinDoornbos) October 22, 2026

Oct 22, 2026 - World

Kim Aris says ‘hearing her voice again means more than words can express’ amid loosening of detention restrictionsThe son of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to speak to the detained former democratic leader for the first time in more than five years.“Today, I was finally able to speak with my mother, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after more than five years. Hearing her voice again means more than words can express,” Kim Aris said in a post on Facebook on Thursday. Continue reading...

Oct 22, 2026 - World

A conservative editorial board threw cold water on one of President Donald Trump's latest diplomatic wins, warning his team was getting played.The Wall Street Journal's editorial board wrote Wednesday that there is "no cause to be grateful" to Russian President Vladimir Putin for freeing Stephen Hubbard, a retired American teacher jailed in Russia since 2022. Trump said Wednesday that Putin let Hubbard go after a personal plea from the president and asked for nothing in return.The board welcomed Hubbard home but argued the Russian leader "takes Western hostages as part of his statecraft." The editorial laid out a pattern. Putin seizes someone, slaps them with bogus charges, secures a conviction in a rigged court and then frees or swaps them whenever it suits him.The board pointed to The Journal's own reporter, Evan Gershkovich, whom Putin used as a bargaining chip to win back an assassin held in Germany. It also noted that Russian security services detained a Japanese reporter just last week, possibly to pressure Tokyo.Putin didn't need anything new for Hubbard because he has "already been piling up concessions" from Trump while escalating his war on Ukraine, Europe and NATO, the editorial argued. Among them, the board listed loosened U.S. sanctions on diesel sales, waived sanctions in a bill from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and what its sources described as intermittent limits on Ukraine's access to Starlink.The board also took aim at Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who told Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, "you are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that." The editorial dismissed the remark as a "rhetorical smooch," arguing that jailing a man on false charges for four years and then letting him go hardly earns that title.Hubbard's homecoming shouldn't distract from what's at stake, the editorial warned. It accused Putin of bombarding women and children with missiles and drones every night, helping Iran target and kill Americans in the Middle East and seeking to help China fracture U.S. alliances in Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific.

Oct 21, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday, calling her a “dummy” and a “low-IQ person” during a tense exchange over his administration’s handling of Russia.The confrontation erupted as Trump defended his decision not to impose additional sanctions on Moscow while his administration pursues negotiations over the war in Ukraine.“We are maybe close to a deal for the first time in a long time,” Trump said. “When you’re close to a deal, and you have very delicate negotiations, you don’t put sanctions on.”But when Collins pressed him about whether he had lifted sanctions in exchange for a prisoner’s release, Trump abruptly turned hostile.“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re a low-IQ person. You’re a dummy, and you work for CNN,” Trump snapped.“But that’s what you said,” Collins said as she pushed back. Trump moments earlier also accused the reporter of knowing nothing and called CNN “fake news.”The president then launched into a lengthy explanation about negotiations to secure the release of an American prisoner held in Russia, arguing that imposing sanctions could derail such efforts. “The negotiation would obviously come immediately to an end,” Trump said Wednesday. “So use your head.”President Trump is directly tying waiving Russian sanctions to the release of the freed American Stephen Hubbard, despite denying he gave anything to Putin. https://t.co/TUxcvodPuF— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 21, 2026