For years, Vladimir Putin's approval rating barely budged, remaining comfortably above 70 percent despite war, sanctions and economic pressure. Now, Russia's state pollster is recording a steady decline, with support falling to its lowest level since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The administration changed the federal hiring process last year and now asks job applicants to write essays about their favorite Trump administration policy or executive order.
To my future orange master and his sycophants: King Chitolini's executive order banning mail in ballots is the best thing since you created the words fake and fake news.
You"ll be able rig elections; I mean ensure elections are free and fair. Dead people will no longer be able to vote for your policial enemies. The Oval Office will be yours until die from an overdose of McDonald's. Don 'adderall' Jr. can succeed you.
What a fantastic time to be alive.
Merriam-Webster points out that usage of the word “fake” dates back to the 15th century. Even giving Trump the benefit of the doubt and assuming he actually meant to take credit for the term “fake news,” the claim still doesn’t hold up. Merriam-Webster points to specific citations of that phrase in the late 1800s.
Before there was a Tiananmen Square in China, there was Gwangju in South Korea.
The CEO for Starbucks Korea was immediately fired after this debacle, and two very public apologies have been made, but sales continue to plummet. It could well turn out that Starbucks is finished in South Korea.
ource: Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean retail tycoon Chung Yong-jin on Tuesday issued his second apology in two weeks as Starbucks’ local operation faces a backlash over a recent marketing campaign that was widely perceived as mocking victims of a bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1980.
Chung, chairman of Shinsegae Group, which owns a 67.5% stake in Starbucks Korea, bowed three times during a televised statement as he pleaded for forgiveness from the families of democracy activists killed by the country’s former military dictatorship and from the broader public.
The coffee chain sparked public outrage when it attempted to promote a large size of tumbler it calls a “tank” by declaring May 18 to be “Tank Day.” That’s the anniversary of a democratic uprising in the southern city of Gwangju that was brutally suppressed by troops, tanks and helicopters, killing or injuring hundreds.
The campaign compounded outrage by using the slogan “Thwack it on the table!,” which many read as a reference to a notorious 1987 police statement that attempted to cover up the torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol. Police claimed that Park died suddenly after investigators “hit the desk with a thwack.”
Riot police in Turkey have fired a water cannon and teargas to break up a rally called by the ousted opposition leader Özgür Özel days after a court dismissed him from office. Özel called the lunchtime rally in İzmir as Turkey was poised to shut down for the four-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, which begins on Wednesday.
On Sunday, riot police had battered their way into the main opposition CHP’s headquarters in the capital, Ankara, firing teargas and beating party members before throwing them out, Özel said. A shock court ruling last Thursday overturned a 2023 party primary that elected Özel. It was the latest in a string of moves against the CHP, Turkey’s oldest political party, which scored a win over Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan’s ruling AKP in 2024 local elections and has been rising in the polls.
Divers who helped in the dramatic rescue of a young Thai football team in 2018 have joined efforts to free seven people who have been trapped for five days inside a remote, flooded cave in central Laos.
The group entered the cave in Xaysomboun province on Wednesday to hunt for wildlife and search for gold, reports suggest. Heavy rain led to landslides, which blocked the cave entrance.
Laos' communist government, which tightly controls the country’s media, could not be reached for comment.
Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has sparked a diplomatic crisis by publishing footage of Israeli security forces abusing international activists who were detained as they tried to sail to Gaza with aid.
There was a rapid and furious response from countries whose citizens were onboard the boats, including the UK, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland, in many cases delivered in person from the top of government.
From MAGA loyalist to antiwar dissident – is Tucker Carlson’s pivot sincere or a savvy reinvention?
Longtime Donald Trump supporter Tucker Carlson has broken with the president on some key issues, becoming one of the country’s staunchest critics of the US relationship with Israel. Carlson is engaging with voices he once criticised, like The New York Times, and his rising popularity has fueled speculation in Washington, DC that he could try to ride that momentum all the way to the White House.
An assassination attempt at the White House correspondents’ dinner underscored the spectacle, chaos and violence that have defined Donald Trump’s second presidency.
The information front has been central to the Iranian government’s war effort.
For an external audience, there is an innovative online strategy that has consisted of AI Lego, memes and hip hop diss tracks directed at Donald Trump and the MAGA base. But this coexists with more brutal domestic tactics: crackdowns, arrests and internet blackouts.
News outlets in the United States are under pressure like never before. In the first part of this special episode, we examine how media ownership has become concentrated in the hands of a tiny group of elites, who have tempered critical coverage of the US president.
It took Israel only 10 minutes to carry out one of the worst mass-killings in Lebanon since the end of the country’s civil war in 1990.
Omar Rakha heard the war planes but did not feel the explosions; it was only when he woke up face down on the street, bleeding, that he understood what had happened: the building next to his in the Barbour neighbourhood of central Beirut had been destroyed by two Israeli bombs. He then ran through the flaming wreckage to find his sister, screaming.
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake has struck the Northern Molucca Sea region in Indonesia, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The quake, which hit early on Thursday local time, had depth of 35km and its epicenter was 127km (79 miles) west-northwest of Ternate, Indonesia, the USGS said.
The US tsunami warning system said tsunami waves were possible with 1,000km of the epicentre, along the coasts of Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. It warned that tsunami waves reaching 0.3 metres to one metre (3.2ft) above the tide level were possible for some of the Indonesian coastline.
The war on Iran has entered a much more damaging phase with more assassinations of the leadership in Tehran, the continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and major strikes on energy infrastructure across the region.
As the war has escalated, pressure on news organisations in the United States, Israel and Iran is increasing.
Donald Trump couldn't locate The Chagos Islands even if they were marked by big red stick pin.
An illegal war, two leaders in cahoots and media outlets struggling to meet the moment.
An overlapping belief in end times, or the second coming, underpins much of the motivation in the corridors of power in Washington and in the bunkers where the ayatollahs hide today, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley
America has no plan. Donald Trump has admitted that the people Washington had in mind to run Iran are now dead – and other candidates may soon die. So it may appear that the US-Israeli war machine will achieve no victory because there is no definition of what that may look like.
One would expect Iran's government to be based on religious doctrine as the Supreme Leader is member of the religious elite. While religious fervor has always existed in America the first amendment has prevented the creation of a Christian theocratic government. Today, a number of Trump's cabinet members are religious nationalists, if not Christian supremacists. Pete Hegseth the Secretary of Defense has a number of Christian nationalist tattoos. Pete Hegseth and the other Christian nationalist share a worldview that is anathema to the constitution and the bill of rights. As the only time the word religion appears is in the first amendment which clearly states that there should always be a separation of church and state. Additionally the name of no organized religion appears in either document.
In 2018, Pete Hegseth, then a Fox News commentator, gave a speech at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in which he said that Israel’s foundation in 1948 had been “a miracle”, as had the 1967 six-day war victory – and the 2017 decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.
He also said he foresaw another miracle – the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple on the site of what is now the Haram al Sharif in Jerusalem – a sacred site in Islam.
This, in the tradition of Christian end-times belief, is an essential part of the return of Christ.
In 1953 the CIA instituted Operation Ajax which was led by Kermit Roosevelt cousin of Franklin Roosevelt. Using cash to payoff government opposition groups and propaganda the coup was a success collapsing the government of Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh.
The overthrow of Mosadegh's was done to stop the nationalisation of Irans oil industry which at that time was controlled by the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company Mosadegh's government had sought an audit of Anglo-Iranian books to insure that Iran was being paid what was owed per the agreement. The British saw the nationalisation of Anglo-Iranian has a case of theft.
With Mosadegh removed from power the Shah of Iran was able to consolidate his power. Over his 26 years in power the Shah's government became more repressive using the SAVAK to repress dissent, censor the media and imprison those opposed to the Shah's rule.
All of this helped to ensure the Islamic Revolution of 1979 would be a success.
Israel said it had attacked Iran early on Saturday morning, as explosions were heard across Tehran.
An Israeli military spokesman said the country had “launched a pre-emptive strike against Iran to remove threats to the state of Israel.”
Israel closed its airspace and declared a state of emergency, in anticipation of Iranian drone and missile strikes in response.
Sirens sounded across Israel at around 08:15 local time (06:15 GMT), alerting people of the threat of a possible missile attack. The Israeli strikes happen amid diplomatic efforts between US and Iranian officials for a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear programme and avert a war, and negotiations were expected to continue next week.
Iran had made concessions in the talks, although US President Donald Trump - who had previously threatened to attack Iran to put pressure on its leaders to accept a deal - said yesterday he was not “thrilled” with the way the discussions were going.
