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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

Oct 21, 2026 - World

A once-friendly world leader turned the tables on President Donald Trump by blasting his latest attempts to score political points off a crisis abroad.French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday blasted what he called "unacceptable" and "stupid" comments from foreign leaders about the turmoil in his country, and when a reporter asked if he meant Trump, he replied, "Among others," the Associated Press reported.France has been rocked by rioting and looting that grew out of protests over the rising cost of living. Trump has seized on the violence to energize his supporters, claiming without evidence that Muslim migrants are to blame and urging Macron to "close your borders and take control before it is too late!"Macron said there "has been foreign manipulation of information in the aftermath" of last weekend's looting in Paris and other cities."And that has led to comments that are as unacceptable as they are stupid, from many people, including foreign leaders," he said.The French leader also pointed to "AI-generated images depicting scenes that never actually happened in France.""We've had people claiming that we were invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists, which is completely false," he said.The two leaders were once on friendly terms, but Trump now routinely ridicules Macron in his speeches."The fact is, all the people who are speaking ill of our country right now are people who don't love our country," Macron said. "So those people really bother me."He went further, taking aim at politicians "in the middle of election campaigns, whether in the region or on the other side of the Atlantic.""They're using our country for their own political campaigns," he said. "And we don't need that."Macron made the remarks in Qatar as he wrapped up a swing through Gulf states aimed at shoring up fuel supplies amid France's energy crunch, the AP noted.