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Oct 23, 2026 - World

A prominent political strategist has called for the “immediate removal” of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law from “every diplomatic assignment” following an explosive report alleging that Jared Kushner secretly had access to roughly $1.75 billion in Gulf money while serving in the White House.“I call it financial treason: the exchange of entrusted American power for concealed foreign financial benefit,” wrote ex-GOP strategist Steve Schmidt in an analysis published Friday on his Substack.“The constitutional crime of treason has a specific definition that prosecutors must satisfy; my accusation concerns the betrayal of allegiance at the heart of this reported bargain. I will not pretend it is a misunderstanding about etiquette.”According to an excerpt from journalist Matthew Cole’s book “Princes and Thieves” published by Vanity Fair, Kushner became a signatory on a roughly $750 million account in the United Arab Emirates held through a charity. Cole reported that Emirati ruler Mohamed bin Zayed separately routed about $1 billion, allegedly intended for Kushner’s personal benefit, through Azerbaijan to Israel’s central bank at the encouragement of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The report also alleged that Dutch intelligence found screenshots from Kushner’s phone on a Russian military intelligence server, indicating Moscow had penetrated the device. Kushner’s counsel has denied that the accounts existed and denied any wrongdoing.Kushner, who holds no official administration title, serves as an informal envoy and has helped lead U.S. negotiations involving Israel and Hamas, Russia and Ukraine, and Iran. Citing Kushner’s enormous influence on U.S. foreign policy, Schmidt called for immediate action from lawmakers not only to remove Kushner from his diplomatic roles, but also to launch a massive criminal probe.“Put Kushner and everyone with relevant knowledge under oath. The alleged transaction must be investigated as a potential crime. Accepting benefits corruptly in exchange for being influenced in official acts is bribery. The agreement, the benefits and the acts must be established,” Schmidt wrote.“There must be no family exemption. No private accommodation. No assumption that the money is too large, the people too powerful, or the implications too disturbing to confront. Americans have been asked to endure years of lies, cruelty, corruption and contempt while the most privileged people in the country explain why accountability must always wait. Enough.”

Oct 23, 2026 - World

The U.S. is expanding restrictions on foreign investment in China, ranging from current curbs on artificial intelligence to a ban on technology related to key Chinese weapon developments, according to a proposed Treasury Department rule.

Oct 23, 2026 - World

Video shows AI likenesses of people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party appearing to admit to wrongdoingA political ad from Spain’s main opposition party that used a deepfake video of the prime minister’s wife has sparked outrage and set off a wider debate on AI, as the deeply polarised country gears up for general elections next month.Launched this week across the social media channels of the conservative People’s party (PP), the video used artificial intelligence to manipulate the likenesses of various people linked to Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party and appeared to show them admitting to acts such as soliciting prostitutes and taking kickbacks. Continue reading...

Oct 23, 2026 - World

People in Russian-occupied city facing severe shortages of food, water and electricity, with some reportedly surviving on weedsThe White House has said that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, where a deepening humanitarian crisis has left thousands of civilians struggling to survive.In a statement on Friday, the White House said both sides had agreed to halt all military operations in the city from 27 October to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and preparations for the evacuation of civilians. Continue reading...

Oct 23, 2026 - World

Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has courted Donald Trump and other leading MAGA figures for a decade, according to a trove of newly leaked emails reviewed by the Guardian.The leak, reported Friday, includes more than 420,000 emails and documents from the party, most dating to before 2019. The AfD has confirmed a cyberattack on an external provider in September but said only parts of a few inboxes, "mostly unused for years," were copied unlawfully.The Guardian reported that senior AfD officials agonized over the wording of an “obsequious” congratulatory telegram after Trump’s 2016 win, which included the wish that his “hopes as a person be fulfilled.” The party quickly moved to asking the White House for support on policy, the paper reported. A second message, sent Jan. 20, 2017, asked Trump to help remove the United Nations’ “enemy state” clauses. The AfD’s federal board adopted the request on a Jan. 16 call, according to a record in the leaked documents. When the party’s federal office circulated an English draft on Jan. 19, Georg Pazderski, then the party’s Berlin leader and a federal board member, objected to the tone and the request.“You don’t address the president as Mr Trump, he is Mr President. Otherwise a bit wordy and flowery. I stand by it: the enemy-state clause doesn’t belong in this letter at all. You don’t do that in a letter of congratulation. It looks like a begging letter,” Pazderski wrote, according to the Guardian.Other documents show a growing relationship between Alice Weidel, now the AfD’s leader, and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The two met in Zurich in March 2018, though the files show "no follow-up," according to the Guardian.The AfD has surged since then. It won 12.6 percent of the vote when it entered the Bundestag in 2017 and came second with 20.8% in the February 2025 federal election, the Guardian noted. It now leads national polls at about 30 percent. On Sept. 6 it won 43.8 percent in Saxony-Anhalt, and Trump hailed the result on Truth Social. “Wow! The Populist Party in Germany just had a really big night,” he wrote, ending with “MGGA!!!”Germany’s domestic intelligence agency monitors the party as a suspected rightwing extremist organization, the Guardian reported.AfD politician Markus Frohnmaier said he could not verify the documents, which he said were obtained unlawfully, and described the contacts as ordinary political outreach, according to the Guardian. The paper said the US State Department has had friendly contacts with the party during Trump’s second term.