Author: Press Room

Senators from both parties chided the Trump administration Thursday for continuing to withhold funding Congress has approved, more than a year after the White House first froze billions of dollars for temporary “review.” During White House budget director Russ Vought’s testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) scolded the OMB chief for not sending hundreds of millions of dollars the Trump administration is supposed to give states throughout the year to support community services aimed at reducing poverty. “Congress has appropriated money, and you don’t have the authority to impound it,” Grassley said about the more than…

The American president says the war is “very close to over,” while Tehran insists it does not seek conflict but will not bow to pressure or surrender US President Donald Trump has said he is “permanently opening” the Strait of Hormuz, presenting the move as benefiting “China and the world” after claiming Beijing agreed “not to send weapons to Iran.” Trump’s remarks come as the US military claims American warships have effectively blocked Iranian trade through the vital waterway.  Iran’s army has warned it could target marine traffic in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman, and the Red Sea…

A European-led mission to clear the Strait of Hormuz and keep it open for global oil traffic is being spun as a snub to President Donald Trump, despite it being exactly what the American leader has been asking for allies to step up and do for weeks. France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Keir Starmer will co-host a conference of potential contributing members of “coalition of the willing”-like mission to patrol the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint in the Persian Gulf, which in normal times sees a fifth of the world’s daily seaborne oil trade, on Friday. Reuters reports that the…

Failed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris complained about gas prices this week despite overseeing the highest record ever as sitting vice president in the summer of 2022. Harris shared a video of herself in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday, citing concerns about rising fuel costs. “Hey everyone. So I’m here in Charlotte. Since the start of Trump’s war of choice, it’s 15 more dollars every time you fill up your tank of gas,” Harris said, standing in front of a gas station sign. “The price of diesel has now gone up 80 percent since the start of the war, and…

“I had received some questions about President Donald J. Trump’s recent posts, and here are my thoughts,” he began. “I do not believe President Trump would knowingly depict himself as Jesus Christ — that would certainly be inappropriate. I’m thankful the President has made it very clear that this was not at all what he thought the AI-generated image was representing — he thought it was a doctor helping someone, and when he learned of the concerns, he immediately removed the post,” Graham said, explaining that he did not jump to the same conclusions as others when he saw the…

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that GOP leaders want to make sure Republicans in both chambers are aligned as they move ahead with a party-line plan for immigration enforcement funding. The South Dakota Republican told reporters he hopes the Senate will adopt a budget framework “by middle-to-the-end of next week,” the first step to unlocking the filibuster-skirting power to clear a package of up to $75 billion for ICE and Border Patrol. Then ideally the House would adopt the Senate budget measure without changes, Thune said, allowing Republicans to move on to passage votes on a final bill…

Brussels fears Spain’s mass amnesty for illegal migrants may prompt an E.U. member state to shutter its borders, European Commissioner for Asylum and Migration Magnus Brunner declared Wednesday. Brunner delivered the his remarks at “Wake Up, Spain! Wake Up, Europe! ‘Growth, Cohesion, and Uncertainty,’” an ongoing symposium hosted by the digital newspaper El Español and others in Madrid between April 13 – 17. The commissioner addressed the fragility of the Schengen free movement zone and pointed out that ineffective management of irregular migration erodes trust among Member States, which could trigger the reintroduction of internal border controls and “jeopardize the very essence of European freedom…

A Texas college student accused of attacking OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home and the company’s headquarters had previously discussed “Luigi’ing some tech CEOs” in online conversations, according to newly revealed messages. The Wall Street Journal reports that Daniel Moreno-Gama, a 20-year-old college student from the Houston area, made casual references to Luigi Mangione, the accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer, during an online conversation with producers of The Last Invention podcast, according to screenshots shared with the Wall Street Journal. The producers had reached out to interview him for a series focused on AI. In January, Moreno-Gama participated in the podcast interview, describing…

A bill that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure that companies that produce drugs for Americans do not have ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). Cotton made the case for such a bill at a March Breitbart News policy event in Washington, DC, telling Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle China has used “illegitimate means” to corner the U.S. pharmaceutical market.  “Many of our — not super high-end, cutting-edge drugs, but just very basic medicines like ibuprofen and acetaminophen, penicillin,…

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sounded less enthusiastic about cutting his department’s budget during the first of several hearings Thursday than he did a year ago. Then, Kennedy told lawmakers a proposed 25 percent cut to the Department of Health and Human Services was needed to rein in a bloated bureaucracy plagued with reckless spending, telling House appropriators a year ago: “We intend to do more, a lot more with less.” Congress rejected the cuts and increased the HHS budget in a February spending bill. In front of the Ways and Means Committee on Thursday, Kennedy struck a different…