He began with a sombre tone.

"This was a dark and excruciating night in our nation's capital and in our nation's history — a tragedy of terrible proportions," Donald Trump told the packed room of journalists.

"As one nation, we grieve for every precious soul that has been taken from us so suddenly."

He asked those at Thursday's press conference to join him in a moment of silence to reflect on the 67 lives lost the night before.

But that moment proved to be the proverbial calm before the storm.

Donald Trump turns aviation tragedy into new front in the culture wars
By North America correspondent Carrington Clarke

Ukrainian MP Aleksey Goncharenko has openly called on EU lawmakers to support the idea of assassinating Russian President Vladimir Putin and of promoting it among ordinary people. On Friday the legislator published a video on Telegram of himself making controversial statements at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Ukrainian MP calls for Putin’s murder at Council of Europe
Such rhetoric would supposedly help Kiev get more aid from its Western backers, Aleksey Goncharenko believes

Washington seems to have developed a new habit — throwing tantrums whenever it falls behind. When did "American greatness" turn into nonstop whining?

‘Hostile’ BRICS dares to challenge ‘mighty US dollar’

US President Donald Trump has once again threatened BRICS countries with 100% tariffs if they dare to create a new currency — despite Russian President Vladimir Putin already clarifying that a unified BRICS currency isn’t even on the table.

DeepSeek: the latest ‘stolen’ US tech scandal

In the last three years there has been a blizzard of new laws with respect to youth justice across Australia. While some laws have been welcome, a substantial number have been retrograde. In this category, laws with respect to young children have been the most controversial. This fact has attracted critical attention from a number of respected international and non-governmental human rights organisations.

A number of Democrats voted for a bill designed to crack down on undocumented immigrant criminals but so far only one Democratic lawmaker has said he'll attend a White House signing ceremony for it.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is the first Democrat committed to attending President Donald Trump's signing of the Laken Riley Act, a bill mandating the detention of more undocumented immigrants charged with crimes.

Fetterman lone Democrat so far to attend immigration bill signing

BY DANIELLA DIAZ

US President Donald Trump’s return to the center stage of world politics has once again ignited discussions about his peculiar political behavior. While the subject may feel numbing to some, Trump continues to dictate the global information agenda, underscoring two key realities about the modern world. First, the United States’ central role remains undeniable, no matter how much others might wish for a multipolar order. Second, Trump’s approach – pushing boundaries both literally and figuratively – has proven to be an effective way of achieving goals in today’s climate. 

Fyodor Lukyanov: How Trump’s bluntness shatters the liberal world order
The US president’s unapologetic leadership exposes Western hypocrisy

US President Donald Trump’s purge of the FBI’s leadership comes as no surprise - the agency has been acting more like a political enforcer than a law enforcement body.

Here are just a few examples of its (mis)conduct:

August 2022 – The FBI stormed Trump’s Mar-a-Lago to seize classified documents while Biden faced zero consequences for doing the same.

2020 – The FBI actively suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story, labeling it "Russian disinformation", despite knowing it was real.

August 2024 – FBI agents raided the homes of ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and journalist Dimitri Simes without announcing charges. Their crime? Challenging the official US narrative.

This brief provides a detailed analysis of a first-of-its-kind, publicly available repository of U.S. think tank funding — www.thinktankfundingtracker.org. The repository tracks funding from foreign governments, the U.S. government, and Pentagon contractors to the top 50 think tanks in the United States over the past five years. It serves as a vital research guide for anyone wishing to learn more about the funding sources of prominent U.S. think tanks.  

“I’m not looking to hurt Russia,” President Donald Trump recently declared in a statement he posted on his TruthSocial account. “I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin.” 

Trump, however, comes from the school of “hard love,” where punishment is applied to achieve the desired results.

And punishment was on Trump’s mind as he expressed his love and admiration for the Russian people and their leader, Vladimir Putin.

I do not suppose he means “one hundred years” exactly, for there is no historical evidence to show that world shattering events have been occurring on a hundred-year cycle. World War I ended in 1918, and World War II began in 1939 – in less than 20 years. China overthrew the Manchus in 1911, and it went through a tumultuous time until the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949. Great Depression devastated the Americans in the early 1930s. The first Oil Crisis occurred in 1973.  I do not see any discernable pattern. 

Xi Jinping’s “Once-in-a-Century Upheaval” Prophecy

BY LIM YU-BOOK

In the late 1970s Donald Trump, in his early thirties, cocky as ever and recently married to Ivana in 1977, could be seen on and off hitting the electric New York City night life especially at glamour/hard partying disco dive Studio 54.

A certified dancefloor killer at Studio 54 was Disco Inferno by The Trammps, mixed by dance wizard Tom Moulton, released in 1976, two years before perennial Trump favorite YMCA – now resuscitated to global furor as the soundtrack to Trump 2.0 dance moves.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy discusses the third year of Russia’s invasion and President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war on ‘Hannity.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OVoVDZw4zg

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2022... VANITY FAIR....

President Donald Trump’s improbable honeymoon with the media may have coincidentally ended on the same day that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave her first briefing.

Not because of anything Leavitt said or did, though she clearly walks out to the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room ready to do battle. “We know for a fact that there have been lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets about this president,” she told the assembled reporters, who may soon find themselves wishing for the halcyon days of Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Kayleigh McEnany. 

The mystery independent contender for Peter Dutton’s seat of Dickson (Qld) is solved with the announcement Climate 200-backed environmental consultant Ellie Smith to contest the seat. Andrew Gardiner reports.
She is not a “Teal,” Smith insists, but a “Maroon” independent.

‘Maroon independent’ to take on Dutton in Dickson unveiled
     by Andrew Gardiner

Prime Minister François Bayrou sparked outrage from the opposition, and indignation from his allies, when he referred to a feeling of being “flooded” by immigration taking root in France. The prime minister was accused of citing the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory that has fuelled the far right for decades.