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Sep 26, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump heads into high-stakes meetings with world leaders carrying a risky habit, White House insiders told his biographer.In a Saturday episode of "Inside Trump's Head," Michael Wolff said that Trump refuses to read his briefing books before summits and told co-host Joanna Coles about the pattern while breaking down Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit."I've had this described to me by White House people of what happens when he goes into these meetings," Wolff said. Summits normally demand "really hard work," with briefing books and input from every corner of government that has "issues that they want on the table," Wolff explained."It's a difficult moment for any president because, I mean, you're the guy and you got to know what you're talking about," Wolff said. "If you don't know what you're talking about, you're giving away the store."The stakes, he stressed, go well beyond pageantry."It's a matter of security," Wolff said. "The world turns on these kinds of meetings. Not with Trump."Trump "refuses to look at the briefing books" and "refuses to have extensive conversations about the issues at hand," according to Wolff."Doesn't care, I suppose. Doesn't know what he's talking about," Wolff said. "He is always saying, 'I'm really good with this.' And then he goes into these meetings, and all it is is flattery."That flattery flows in both directions, with foreign counterparts "very clearly" understanding "what they can get by this," Wolff said."I'm trying to circumvent using the word buffoon," he added, "but I think that's what they see him as. They're like, 'Oh my God.'"Coles asked who would traditionally prepare the president, suggesting Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Wolff said the job requires "weeks of preparation," so aides boil it down instead."They give him two points. You got to do this and this," Wolff said. "And even that usually doesn't register with him."Wolff said the reality is difficult to convey to voters, and even to White House staff, who fall back on the idea that "he's been elected twice" and "must know what he's doing.""The president of the United States does not know what he's talking about in these situations," Wolff said.He warned that the consequences will soon come into view."Years from now, or not even years from now, I think we will start to see the effects of this," Wolff said.

Sep 26, 2026 - World

A European energy official ripped dealing with the Trump administration as a waste of time while the White House weighs capping diesel exports.Politico reported Saturday that the White House is considering curbs on diesel shipments overseas, with options ranging from a full 90-day ban to gradual limits, as prices in the U.S. have climbed from $3.74 to $6.52 a gallon over the past year. The oil and gas industry has fiercely resisted the idea, warning it could hurt American producers in foreign markets.The official, who represents an Eastern European government and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions, pointed to that industry pushback as proof of how little sway foreign governments hold with the administration."If they're not listening to their own people, why would they listen to us?" the official said.The official added that a wider diplomatic breakdown had made formal outreach pointless."With this administration, official channels tend to be a slow waste of time," the official said. "And yet that's exactly why official channels are supposed to work. If everyone tries to get in through the back door, the back door becomes the front door."Some in Trump's own orbit share the concern. An outside adviser to the Trump administration, also granted anonymity, warned the move would undercut the president's pledge to keep allies supplied with American energy."This is going to damage our reputation," the adviser said. "The whole premise of energy dominance was that the United States would be able to supply our allies around the world. Curtailing that is going to raise question marks."Europe has leaned heavily on U.S. diesel since the war with Iran disrupted oil supplies in February. David Jorbenaze, a senior oil analyst at ICIS, said European Union imports rose by 1.5 million barrels a day in August. S&P Global Energy estimates American diesel now meets a tenth of the continent's demand."Removing that source would pull away the leg Europe has been leaning on hardest," Jorbenaze said.

Sep 26, 2026 - World

Attorney says fishers ‘losing their livelihoods’, but Marco Rubio maintains US still willing to ‘blow up ships if need be’While the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was being decorated in Quito by Ecuador’s president for “helping to promote peace in the region”, 10 Ecuadorian fishers whose boat had been blown up by US forces were adrift in the eastern Pacific.On 8 September, a day before Rubio arrived, a US patrol vessel intercepted the fishing boat Don Rufo in international waters near Ecuador. Continue reading...

Sep 26, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's touted "biggest oil deal in world history" with Venezuela faces legal and logistical problems likely to sink it.The Guardian reported Saturday that nearly every major claim the Trump administration has made about the arrangement falls apart under scrutiny, from how long it lasts to the Pentagon's role in it. Venezuelan law caps oil development agreements at 25 years, not the 100 Trump has boasted about, and Venezuela's own government has put the term at 25."This is all just propaganda," Venezuelan legal expert Jose Ignacio Hernandez told The Guardian. "It cannot be implemented as announced by the administration."Trump announced in August that the Pentagon would take roughly a third of North American Blue Energy Partners, the second-largest private oil company in Venezuela. The move followed the January raid in which U.S. forces captured Nicolas Maduro and replaced him with Delcy Rodriguez.Experts say Congress never gave the Office of Strategic Capital, the Pentagon arm initially tied to the investment, the power to buy stakes in companies. A Pentagon spokesperson told Reuters in August that the office "does not take equity stakes in private companies." In a written briefing to the armed services committees, the Pentagon said it actually holds warrants, which are rights to buy shares later, rather than the shares themselves.The stake will reportedly be held by a separate Pentagon office whose mission is shoring up the defense industrial base and has nothing to do with oil.Phil Gunson of the International Crisis Group said major oil firms and investors are privately keeping their distance."It's the opacity of the agreement that has serious investors concerned," he said.The Guardian's investigation also found that Venezuelan crude won't help refill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve any time soon, despite Trump's promises.At the center of the deal sits the company's owner, Alejandro Betancourt Lopez, who has been pulled into several international corruption inquiries but has never been charged with a crime. His lawyer denied that Betancourt ever sought or encouraged bribes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the U.S. had no investigation into him.Former U.S. diplomat John Feeley offered a blunt comparison."The deal is like the big beautiful wall that Mexico will pay for," he said. The Guardian noted Trump's comments at the United Nations earlier this week remained defiant."It was a war, but it's perhaps the biggest deal ever made," he said. "To the victor belong the spoils."

Sep 26, 2026 - World

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has criticized the Chinese Communist Party for years. On Friday night, she told viewers that the White House state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping was "historic and epic," and critics online didn't let the change go.Ingraham, who attended the dinner, brought up her past criticism of Beijing on her show, "The Ingraham Angle.""All of you already know how I feel about the CCP, its trade practices, human rights abuses. Not to speak of the cover-up at the Wuhan lab," she said. "Imagine my surprise that I was invited. It was historic and epic."In another segment, which ran under the chyron "TRUMP DEALING WITH XI FROM STRENGTH," she argued that President Donald Trump has the upper hand."China needs us way more than we need China," Ingraham said. "Our economy is booming."Acyn Torabi, who posts political video clips on X, shared both segments. The replies came quickly.Tennis great Martina Navratilova, an outspoken Trump critic, quote-posted the economy clip with a short response: "Umm….nope."John Harwood, a former White House correspondent for CNN and CNBC, answered the dinner clip by throwing Ingraham's word back at her: "this is epic."An X user posting as "Radio Justice" compared her upbeat economic talk to what a loyalist might have told Hitler late in World War II."Yes, Mein Fuhrer, we are winning the war on the Russian Front," the user wrote.Jill E. Friedman, a writer and sculptor, replied with a GIF of Will Ferrell laughing as Ron Burgundy."No they don't," she also wrote.Ingraham's evening at the dinner also drew attention because of who wasn't there. Reporters from CNN and MS Now were reportedly kept out of the event. A federal judge had ordered the administration earlier that week to restore the press credentials it pulled from those outlets and Politico.