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Aug 7, 2026 - World

A murdered journalist, an organized crime racket, and an alleged scheme to siphon off tens of millions of dollars: These all appear in a new report about a Trump Tower rising in the Caucasus.The Daily Beast on Friday revealed the dark and tangled history behind a 70-story skyscraper President Donald Trump's sons are building with a company co-owned by an oligarch. "The president’s sons are trumpeting a new Trump Tower — but not the Moscow oligarch behind one of the companies they named in the deal," wrote the Beast reporter Will Neal. "[That oligarch] has shady ties to Russia."The development in question is Trump Tower Tbilisi, of which Eric Trump, 42, shared an AI rendering in May with the gushing comment that it "marks our first project in the region."A joint investigation by The Daily Beast, PunchUp and The Newsground reported one of the groups named on the project, Biograpi Living, is co-owned by Paata Gamgoneishvili — the oligarch in question. Biograpi Living now insists it has nothing to do with the deal, despite being featured prominently in the Trumps' own announcement.The White House denied the report had anything to do with Trump“This has nothing to do with the president,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Beast, "whose investment holdings are held in fully discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions."That didn't stop the Beast from digging into Gamgoneishvili's past. Among the startling narratives revealed in the report is the brutal rape and murder of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova."Investigative outlet Bivol tied Gamgoneishvili and Isaev in 2019 to the network behind an alleged scheme that siphoned tens of millions of dollars out of the Bulgarian arm of Russian oil giant Lukoil," the Beast reported. "The year before, a TV journalist who had hosted Bivol’s reporters for a segment about the wider scandal was found murdered. Authorities said her killing was not connected to her work—a conclusion Bivol’s editor disputed."The Beast also tied Gamgoneishvili, a Moscow trader during the Soviet Union's collapse, to Boris Yeltsin, the former President of Russia. "Gamgoneishvili backed the then-president through a union of Afghan war veterans and was handed a state medal for it," the Beast reported. "Yeltsin rewarded the veterans movement with lucrative import perks, and parts of it later curdled into an organized crime racket. Gamgoneishvili ran his own trading business under the union’s wing and rode the same wave to a shopping mall fortune."Two of his Moscow malls alone sold to an Austrian fund for around $230 million in 2006."

Aug 7, 2026 - World

An economist sounded the alarm on the Trump administration's "desperate attempt" to avoid "blaring warnings" from financial markets.In a Thursday opinion column published by The New York Times, economist Eswar Prasad explained why President Donald Trump and the U.S. Treasury were interested in buying billions of dollars' worth of Japanese yen and intervening in the country's currency policy."But they are tied together by one big problem: unsustainably high levels of government debt," Prasad wrote. "Currency market intervention is a desperate attempt by Tokyo and Washington to evade the blaring warnings from financial markets."Prasad noted, "It's rare for the United States to intervene in another country's currency policy," and "it usually happens because there is a crisis."However, the Trump administration has been propping up the currencies in allied countries to reward friends and push its agenda. "It seems risky and expensive to buy another country's currency or even offer to temporarily swap dollars for that currency, especially one whose value is falling," Prasad wrote. "The administration has U.S. economic interests in mind but is also keen to propagate its policies and reward its allies."Prasad pointed out that the Trump administration "propped up the Argentine peso" in October and discussed similarly intervening in the United Arab Emirates. "None of those countries had reached the level of emergency usually required," he wrote. "None of these actions were born of benevolence."According to Prasad, the Trump Treasury is also interested in buying yen to stop it from falling because a weak yen means pricier imports and higher debt costs for Japan, but it also erases Trump's tariffs. However, the U.S. can't outrun its debt, and "with no sign of any discipline on fiscal matters, it will probably result in Washington digging itself into an even deeper debt hole," Prasad wrote.

Aug 6, 2026 - World

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has entered the MAGA burrito war with a sharp message for the Trump administration on Thursday.In an interview on Capitol Hill with TMZ, Warren blamed the administration and called on officials to make immediate moves and drive down food prices by ending the Iran war.TMZ DC co-managing editor Jacob Wasserman asked Warren if she would pay $20 for a burrito, mentioning the online debate that started among conservatives, including Vice President JD Vance, over the cost of the popular meal.Warren laughed, then gave her thoughts, weighing in on why burrito prices have risen."We can bring down these prices by stopping the war in Iran so that we're not driving up the cost of all of our groceries," she said. "We can also roll back the illegal tariffs that are driving up the cost of avocados; we can break up our meat cartel that's driving up the cost of meat. There's a lot that the Trump administration could do to lower prices, but instead what they're doing is raising prices. And you know what? It shows up in your burrito." She argued the cost of food could go down with these immediate changes."Stop the war, end the illegal tariffs, and we've got a better chance of being able to feed ourselves without going broke," Warren added.Would you pay $20 for a burrito? ????Sen. Elizabeth Warren shares solutions with TMZ DC's @jacob_wass to bring down skyrocketing food prices. pic.twitter.com/JsekMHXk7i— TMZ (@TMZ) August 6, 2026

Aug 6, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at targeting "birth tourism," CNN reported.Trump's move comes after the Supreme Court rejected his other birthright citizenship case in June, ruling that birthright citizenship in the United States is constitutional and blocking his previous executive order."We're cracking down very big ... big crackdowns," Trump said during a press conference at the Oval Office, with Trump immigration policy architect and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller standing beside him."This will give us the right to do it in a much more forceful manner. They've taken birthright citizenship, and they're making a joke out of it," Trump said.Trump complained that the U.S. is "the only country of size, just about the only country period that does birthright citizenship. I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court, unfortunately we had a bad decision, a very unfair decision, our country suffers because of it." Trump on Birthright tourism: So we're cracking down very big, very big, big crackdowns pic.twitter.com/PYwCvtG0ng— Acyn (@Acyn) August 6, 2026

Aug 6, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump threw a Truth Social tantrum on Thursday over mounting reports that he's losing control of a crucial conflict. Trump teared into the The Washington Post, accusing the storied news organization of treason for reporting on a Camp David clash between Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over munition shortages in the Iran war. "This rumor was started by The Washington ComPost, one of the worst Media Outlets in the business, despite our telling them their story is completely FALSE," Trump wrote. "In actuality, I really believe their fake 'reporting' is treasonous!"Trump claimed he was happy with Hegseth and his "extraordinary" work pursuing initiatives that include attacking Venezuela and Diversity, Equality, Inclusion initiatives. "Everything has been extraordinary, including our attack on Venezuela, where the result was accomplished in less than one day, allowing us to bring one of the worst criminals anywhere in the World, Nicolas Maduro, to Justice! Likewise, Iran, where the country has been decimated for the purpose of NOT ALLOWING IT TO EVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, is going very well!"Trump also claimed the military is as fond of Hegseth as he is. "Pete is highly respected within the Military, and has made tremendous improvements, including getting rid of DEI, and increasing recruitment to historic levels," Trump wrote. Meanwhile, reports have been circulating of anger among military families who say their loved ones have been seized by ICE agents and trapped on a mold-infested ship where doctors warn conditions could drive them insane.