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Jul 17, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's public address may have severely damaged the nation's delicate relationship with China and threatened a crucial summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this fall, NBC News reported Friday.Trump on Thursday night leveled explosive allegations that China had illicitly obtained 220 million American voter files—including names, addresses, phone numbers, and political party preferences, the report noted. NBC reported that Trump branded it "the largest compromise of election data in history," but offered no credible evidence to support the claim.His statements were undercut by a 2021 memo from the current CIA Director John Ratcliffe, MS NOW reported on Friday morning.The allegations immediately backfired. China's foreign ministry swiftly rejected the accusations as fabricated, with spokesperson Lin Jian dismissing Trump's claims as a "malicious smear" designed to undermine bilateral relations."China has consistently adhered to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries," Lin stated at a Beijing briefing Friday. "China has no interest in, and has never interfered in, U.S. elections."The timing couldn't be worse, NBC News reported, as both nations attempt to maintain a fragile trade ceasefire while navigating deep geopolitical tensions. Trump's public accusations—which contradict findings from his own CIA Director John Ratcliffe, based on a 2021 memo—now threaten to unravel months of diplomatic groundwork, the report stated.While Trump stopped short of explicit threats toward Beijing or Xi personally, experts warn the damage to relations is substantial. The accusations inject fresh hostility into an already fraught dynamic."Beneath the veneer of Washington and Beijing trying to get along, there continues to be friction," Ja Ian Chong, a political science professor at the National University of Singapore told NBC. "This could add to that."

Jul 17, 2026 - World

Visas will be shortened to 240 days, down from five years, and Chinese journalists will be limited to 90 daysThe Trump administration has said it will drastically shorten visas for foreign journalists in the US to 240 days, down from five years, and cut those for Chinese journalists to only 90 days.The rule announced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will do away with the “duration of status” system, which allows foreign journalists to stay and work in the United States as long as they meet eligibility requirements. Continue reading...

Jul 17, 2026 - World

MS NOW’s David Rohde argued Friday morning that CIA Director JohnRatcliffe needs to explain why he let President Donald Trump make false claims that contradict his own investigation.Rohde appeared on "Morning Joe" to discuss the top CIA official's presence in the room on Thursday night when the president accused China of tampering with US elections.He then held up a government memo from Ratcliffe authored that stated otherwise.“This speech to me just shows how desperate, delusional and dangerous this administration, this president is becoming,” he began. "Just on Ratcliffe, I think he owes an explanation to the American people.” Holding up the memo, he continued, “This is a public document. This is his dissent that he put out in January 2021 after the election. And the main point he made was that he believed that the amount, the effort to shape, not to interfere, not to change votes — there is no mention in this document from John Ratcliffe that China tried to or changed any votes in the 2020 election. John Ratcliffe simply made the argument that the Chinese effort to influence the operation through propaganda and bots online was larger than the broader assessment that Representative Jim Himes was just talking about.”“And that dissent is actually in this document: It's actually public,” he continued. “And so if there's anyone who should be held to account now, whether it's by President Trump or if he testifies before Congress, it's John Ratcliffe, he either lied, allowed this giant plot to happen where all this was hidden from the president. He is a member of the deep state, or he did not, and which one is it? Director Ratcliffe, were you part of a deep state plot that hid from the president?” - YouTube youtu.be

Jul 17, 2026 - World

Aid workers are first known people to quarantine at facility, which sparked huge opposition in Kenya Seven American aid workers who had been in Congo to fight the Ebola outbreak are quarantining at a new isolation facility in ⁠Kenya after the US government introduced travel ⁠restrictions, the head of a US charity ​employing them told Reuters.The aid workers are the first known people to quarantine at the facility, which has sparked huge opposition in Kenya and is at the heart of a legal case in which a court has ordered the work to be ⁠suspended. Construction continued, however, according to US officials and satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters. Continue reading...

Jul 17, 2026 - World

The U.S. military says it bombed an Iranian surveillance tower used to "track and target" commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.