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Something treacherous looms today on the Alaskan horizon.As Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet to hammer out their version of a Ukrainian-Russian “peace” plan, it could portend one of the darkest chapters in the history of American foreign policy. That’s not hyperbole.I don’t pretend to have the chops to analyze a matter so grave. So I’ll be turning to an expert in this space.But first, let’s review the basics. Trump’s friendship with Putin is warm and longstanding, most revealed — speaking of dark chapters — by his shocking statement in 2018 at Helsinki that he trusted Putin more than 18 intelligence agencies of his own administration.We also know of Trump’s bitter history with our courageous ally, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In 2019 — just a year after Helsinki — Trump attempted to extort dirt about political rival Joe Biden in exchange for release of military assistance desperately needed by Ukraine. He was impeached for that.Trump more recently scolded and attempted to humiliate Zelensky in a shameful scene that defiled the Oval Office. It’s an indictment of our times that it did not receive more universal condemnation.But that’s just the common knowledge piece of the story. To do full justice to the background about Putin, Trump, Ukraine and American foreign policy, I’ve decided to call upon a real expert.His deliberate words provide clear context to why summitry between Trump and Putin poses such a grave danger to the world:Vladimir Putin is a thug. He is a murderer. He is not someone to be admired. He is someone who has jailed and killed journalists, political opponents. He bombed a schoolhouse full of children. This is not a leader, this is a gangster.There is no moral equivalence between the United States of America and Russia. I don’t understand people who say, well, America’s not perfect, so who are we to criticize Putin? We are not in the same category.When you give someone like Vladimir Putin a propaganda win by standing next to him and treating him like an equal, you empower every anti-democratic movement across the globe. You demoralize our allies and you send the worst possible message to the world.Russia is not just another country. It is an active adversary of the United States. It interfered in our elections, it continues to attack our institutions, it backs brutal dictators like Assad, and it has invaded and illegally occupied parts of Ukraine and Georgia.When leaders in our own country excuse or even praise Putin, it tells our allies they can’t count on us — and it tells our enemies they can walk all over us.Donald Trump is a con artist … It’s time to pull off his mask so people can see what we are dealing with here. We must not hand the nuclear codes of the United States to an erratic individual.We cannot have a president who looks at Vladimir Putin and sees a role model. This is someone who poisons his political opponents, assassinates defectors on foreign soil, and jails dissidents.Some people say, well, Putin’s strong. He’s decisive. That’s like admiring the mafia for its discipline. The question isn’t whether he’s effective. The question is: What is he effective at doing? The answer is crushing freedom and destabilizing the world.We know Putin lies. We know he manipulates. And we know that when you stand next to him and suggest he’s telling the truth over our own intelligence agencies, it does enormous damage. It weakens our democracy.The people of Ukraine are fighting and dying to resist Putin’s imperial ambitions. If we abandon them now, we won’t just be betraying an ally — we’ll be inviting more aggression, more chaos, and more suffering around the globe.Supporting Ukraine isn’t charity. It’s in our national interest. If Russia can invade and conquer its neighbors without consequence, what message does that send to China? To Iran? To North Korea?There are leaders in the world today who do not believe in freedom. They do not believe in elections. They believe in power, fear, and control. Vladimir Putin is one of them. We should never make the mistake of treating him as anything else.When our own leaders parrot Russian propaganda or downplay Russia’s crimes, they’re not just being naive. They’re helping our enemies.The minute you stop defending truth, the minute you decide it’s acceptable to ignore facts or excuse tyrants because it suits your politics, you’re no longer leading. You’re enabling.In these perilous times, I hope every American takes these powerful words to heart from a man who today is a leading voice on U.S. foreign policy.That would be Secretary of State Marco Rubio.Every word above is a direct quote from Rubio’s past public commentary over a 15-year period. He spoke them forcefully during his tenure as a U.S. Senator from 2011 through 2024, as well as his 2015-16 run for the Republican presidential nomination.Now? Not so much.Little Marco, as Trump called him during that campaign, has shrunken in stature to the sniveling, groveling member of Trump’s cabinet that we see today rendering a tragic parody of North Korean President Kim Jong-un’s sycophants. Rubio has sold his soul — in plain view of the world — to a degree that’s arguably unprecedented.Now Rubio prattles about Trump being the peace president. He speaks with great restraint about Putin. The old Rubio fire applies now only to Zelensky.But Marco Rubio’s real beliefs — his real words — cannot be erased by Trumpian revisionist history.Unlike their author, they continue to stand for something important.

Development comes as the military continues to crack down on dissent after a pro-democracy rally in MayMali’s military rulers say they have arrested a group of military personnel and civilians, including two Malian generals and a suspected French agent, accusing them of attempting to destabilise the country.The security minister, Gen Daouda Aly Mohammedine, who announced the arrests on the local evening news on Thursday, told viewers an investigation was under way and that the situation was “completely under control”. Continue reading...

Profits rise 56% to £38.2m in 2024 as company overtakes British rival Boohoo and closes in on AsosShein, the online fast-fashion retailer founded in China, increased sales in the UK by about a third to more than £2bn last year, overtaking the British rival Boohoo and closing in on Asos.The company, which had been considering a £50bn float on the London Stock Exchange but is expected to list in Hong Kong, said profits rose 56% to £38.2m last year on which it paid £9.6m corporation tax, according to accounts filed at Companies House this week. Continue reading...

One person dies after storm whips up waves, while temperatures approach 50C as heatwave grips Middle EastTyphoon Podul crossed southern Taiwan on Wednesday with wind speeds of up to 110mph (177km/h), equivalent to a category 2 hurricane.Podul had developed a week earlier, near the Northern Mariana Islands, and tracked west across the Philippine Sea, achieving typhoon status on Tuesday before making landfall in south-east Taiwan the following day. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump was on the receiving end of some harsh language during a call with European leaders ahead of his summit with Vladimir Putin.The U.S. president told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other leaders on Wednesday that he hoped to achieve a ceasefire and get a better understanding of whether a peace deal is possible during Friday's meeting with the Russian president, two sources familiar with the call told Axios."Trump had downplayed the likelihood of major breakthroughs in Alaska, calling it a 'feel-out meeting,'" the website reported. "But French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who were also on the call, both confirmed afterwards that Trump said he wants to try to obtain a ceasefire."Zelensky warned Trump during the call, which lasted more than an hour, that "Putin cannot be trusted," according to a knowledgeable source, who added that Trump told the leaders that land swaps would be necessary for a peace deal."Trump said it's Vladimir and Volodymyr who have to discuss territories with each other, not him," the source said.Merz and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte were both "very active" on the call, according to the source, while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni "raised some good points" and Polish President Karol Nawrocki "reminded Trump of the Battle of Warsaw, exactly 105 years ago, when Poland fought together with Ukrainians against the Bolsheviks in Russia" – but one leader angered the U.S. president."A source who was on the call said Macron took 'very tough' positions and told Trump 'a meeting is a very big thing to give to Putin,'" Axios reported, quoting the source. "'Trump didn't like that.'"

Vice President JD Vance is on his eighth vacation in the six months he has spent in office, and this time, he may have broken local laws. The BBC reported on Wednesday that Foreign Secretary David Lammy admitted he didn't have a rod licence when he went fishing with Vance. So, when the two took out their rods, they broke the law. Lammy called it nothing more than an "administrative error."But the report also noted that "it is not clear if Vance had bought a fishing licence," and his office isn't answering questions about it. "The foreign secretary has written to the Environment Agency over an administrative oversight that meant the appropriate licences had not been acquired for fishing on a private lake as part of a diplomatic engagement at Chevening House last week," said the Foreign Office in a statement.Lammy bought the license after the fact. The license costs a mere £7.30, the BBC reported. However, "fishing illegally can incur a fine of up to £2,500, and offenders can also have their fishing equipment seized."Just a few months ago, six anglers were found guilty after they were fishing illegally in London. The group received a fine of £2,182."Everyone who goes fishing needs [a] licence to help improve our rivers, lakes and the sport anglers love," said the spokesperson for the Environment Agency. "We understand the relevant licences have been purchased."Though the office didn't clarify whether that applied to Vance as well as Lammy.Vance called this vacation a "working vacation."Read the full report here.

Business leaders are growing concerned about President Donald Trump's new executive order that, in effect, wages a war against the Mexican drug cartels and how it could impact their companies. Politico explained in a Wednesday report that the administration has designated several major Mexican cartels as "foreign terrorist organizations," putting them in the same category as groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. This classification allows for the deployment of military, intelligence, and law enforcement tools to dismantle cartel operations more aggressively. In April, Trump's administration went so far as to advocate the use of drones to strike key areas of the cartels and conduct intelligence. Last week, Trump secretly signed a directive authorizing the Pentagon to use military force against specific Latin American drug trafficking organizations. It's an escalation of past efforts by the U.S., which has largely used local and federal law enforcement against such networks. However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum reassured citizens on Friday that the U.S. is not putting boots on the ground in their country. “The United States is not going to come to Mexico with their military,” she said in a news conference. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there will be no invasion. It’s off the table, absolutely off the table.”All of it rattles international corporations and businesses, which fear not only escalating violence and destabilizing the region, but there is also an economic impact. "Trump’s move means a company in Mexico that engages in a financial transaction with a cartel could face new U.S. sanctions or criminal charges of providing material support for terrorism," Politico said. "Given the vast reach of the cartels, which have expanded beyond drugs to become more like multinational conglomerates, odds are high that firms here occasionally brush against such networks, even unwittingly.""They’re worried," said one top Chamber of Commerce official, Pedro Casas Alatriste. “Let’s say they have one of their workers get kidnapped, and they have to negotiate in a way that touches organized crime — then they’re susceptible."Read the full report here.

Vice President JD Vance's English countryside getaway descended into mockery overload as protesters gathered to demand the Trump administration official "go home" from his luxury vacation spot.The "Dance Against Vance" demonstration, organized by the Stop Trump Coalition, targeted the Vance family's stay at an 18th-century manor house in the tiny Cotswolds Hamlet of Dean, Oxfordshire. His 20-vehicle convoy and Secret Service detail have forced road closures and ID checks that have "hobbled day-to-day life" for locals."He's simply not welcome here," declared Sue Moon, a therapist from nearby Chipping Norton, told The Guardian. "We don't want anything to do with people like him."The protest featured the viral meme depicting Vance as a bloated baby—the same image that got a Norwegian tourist kicked out of the U.S. earlier this year. Demonstrators brought cake decorated with the mocking image, while the group Everyone Hates Elon raised over $6,000 for a van displaying the meme to drive around the Cotswolds.Many attendees expressed outrage over Vance's February confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Natasha Phillips, who traveled 70 miles to protest, carried a sign reading "JD Vance–the guy who bullied a war hero from the comfort of his couch," the Guardian reported."The way he treated Volodymyr Zelenskyy was disgusting," Phillips said. "The Ukrainian people are heroes."Folk singer Dolly Mavies told the BBC she "packed up our stuff and left" when learning Vance would attend her scheduled performance, stating "morals are more important than money."The vice president has faced similar protests during family vacations to Disneyland and Vermont ski resorts, where demonstrators previously urged him to "try Russia" instead.