Author: Press Room

Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker lambasted the White House decision to invite Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a state dinner this week, calling the foreign head of state “a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator” who cannot be trusted.Wicker, typically a staunch defender of President Donald Trump and Republican loyalist, targeted most of his criticism at Xi and Chinese policy during a Senate floor speech Tuesday. But the comments were nonetheless a surprise rebuke of the president’s courting of Beijing amid broader concerns, such as the durability of U.S. security commitments to the Indo-Pacific, including in deterring a potential invasion…

Russia and Iran have pulled back the curtain on the myth of American dominance in the defense sector, Larry Johnson has said US military might has turned out to be an illusion in the style of ‘The Wizard of Oz’, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson has said.The myth of American dominance in the defense sector was shattered by the Ukraine and Iran conflicts, Johnson said in an interview with RT’s Sanchez Effect on Monday.Before the escalation between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, “Russia had the perception that the US was very powerful militarily, that it had strategic depth, that…

The aftermath of an overnight Russian drone strike that damaged a 19-story residential building in Odesa, injuring seven people, including two children, on September 17, 2026. Photo courtesy of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, DSNS Odesa Region. Russian forces struck Ukraine with missiles and drones on September 17, wounding 20 people in Kyiv, hitting Odesa, Kropyvnytskyi, and the Zhytomyr region, and sending a jet-powered drone down about four kilometers from the Polish border. Across the regions covered in this report, at least seven civilians were killed and 69 injured. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched Iskander-M ballistic missiles, supersonic…

The Chinese Communist Party announced through state media on Monday that two of the country’s highest military officials, Gen. Zhang Youxia and Gen. Liu Zhenli, have been expelled for corruption and “being disloyal and dishonest to the Party.” Zhang was the vice chair of the Central Military Commission (CMC) of the Chinese Communist Party, which made him second only to dictator Xi Jinping in the Chinese military hierarchy. He is the highest-ranking active-duty Chinese general ever to be purged from the Party. Liu was chief of staff for the CMC’s Joint Staff Department, giving him major responsibilities for strategy, logistics,…

What’s Really Driving Bond Yields Higher? The bond market is enjoying a reputational renaissance. Bond traders are increasingly seen in the role Ed Yardeni assigned them years ago, as the “bond vigilantes” warn that the government is borrowing too much. The idea that James Carville famously posited—that everyone is really afraid of the bond market—is back in vogue. Rising Treasury yields are routinely presented as a warning from an unusually sober and wise constituency. The traders are warning us about the risks of fiscal recklessness, too much debt, and deficits running too high. You’ve probably heard some version of this.…

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Michigan’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, said the MAGA movement is “eating itself” when responding to Tucker Carlson saying he will not vote for former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate. Earlier in the month on his podcast, Tucker Carlson said, “I wouldn’t vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint.” Host Erin Burnett asked, “Do you welcome Tucker Carlson’s support?” El-Sayed said, “Look, Tucker and I don’t agree on much, but we definitely agree on what he just said. Mike Rogers is feckless. He is someone who is a coward.” He continued,…

The Department of Homeland Security still has not shared the findings from its investigations into the January killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, despite continued requests from the top Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the panel, said during a brief hallway interview that DHS has not yet given the committee any information from internal probes into any shootings involving immigration officers.Asked if that included the two January shootings in Minneapolis, where immigration officers shot and killed two American citizens, Paul said: “We’ve asked for information. We’re still…

Lithuanian MPs have backed a constitutional change, while Russia has warned of security consequences Lithuania’s parliament has backed a constitutional amendment that would lift a ban on nuclear weapons, thus bringing the NATO member a step closer to hosting them on its territory. Russia has warned the Baltic country, which borders its Kaliningrad Region, that such a move would have significant security implications.The proposal was backed by 99 lawmakers on Tuesday, with 13 voting against and five abstaining. Two more votes are required, scheduled for October 6 and January 12, 2027. At least 94 of Lithuania’s 141 MPs must support…

Utah mail-in ballot / DOJ This is why the Senate needs to pass the SAVE America Act now. The Justice Department on Tuesday announced a postal worker was indicted for discarding more than 300 mail-in ballots in a dumpster. A grand jury indicted 34-year-old Damon Matai Seei on September 16 on one count of Unlawful Secretion, Destruction, and Delay of Mail. Seei was arraigned at a federal courthouse in Utah on Tuesday afternoon. “[On] June 3, 2026, SEEI threw away some of the mail, which he had been entrusted to deliver, into a dumpster in a church parking lot. He…

President Trump hailed the United Kingdom as a country bursting with potential that could be realised if only it had good leadership, as he sat beside its new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, in New York on Tuesday. Recently installed Prime Minister and long-time Trump critic Andy Burnham met President Donald Trump in person for the first time on Tuesday, as the two men held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. President Trump defaulted to his usual posture towards British leaders with whom he has little, politically, in common, offering kind compliments, yet…