Author: Press Room
During a moment of rising tensions, the opposition turns to rapprochement with mainland China – the only viable path forward Last week, the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), the Taiwanese conservative opposition party, paid a six-day visit to mainland China. Invited personally by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Cheng Li-wun traveled through Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing in what became the first high-level meeting between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the KMT in a decade.Relations across the Taiwan Strait have entered their most dangerous phase in years. China’s national rejuvenation is accelerating, the US is intensifying its strategic competition with…
On Wednesday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “All In,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that the Iran nuclear deal was working and “if you make diplomacy impossible, you will make war inevitable. But, obviously, Donald Trump prefers war to diplomacy.” He also cited, as evidence of this, the renaming of the Department of Defense to the Department of War when “It’s a Ministry of Defense in Iran. It’s a Ministry of Defense in China. Only one nation beats its chest and cosplays as a secretary or a department of war.” Kaine said, “Donald Trump took a diplomatic deal that was working…
Lawyers in Peru on Wednesday filed a criminal complaint against conservative presidential candidate Rafael López Aliaga, accusing him of “interfering” with the nation’s elections and demanding his immediate arrest. López Aliaga, who served as mayor of the capital city of Lima, is one of the 35 candidates who appeared on the ballot in Sunday’s presidential elections, representing the conservative Popular Renewal (RP) party. Sunday’s election was marred by logistical delays and a slow vote-counting process that, at press time Thursday morning, has not concluded. Given the large number of candidates, all polling firms projected that no candidate would be able…
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…