President Donald Trump said in an interview published Friday that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” the latest example of the U.S. leader pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to end the war while it remains under siege.
Trump made the comments in a Time magazine interview conducted Tuesday. He's been accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Here's the latest:
Negotiations between Iran and the US over Tehran’s nuclear program return Saturday to Oman
There, of any possible deal.
The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic .
Trump has repeatedly threatened to if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
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Hegseth had an unsecured internet line set up in his office to connect to Signal, AP sources say
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told The Associated Press.
The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
Known as a “dirty” internet line by the IT industry, it connects directly to the public internet where the user’s information and the websites accessed do not have the same security filters or protocols that the Pentagon’s secured connections maintain.
Other Pentagon offices have used them, particularly if there’s a need to monitor information or websites that would otherwise be blocked.
— Tara Copp
Trump orders Justice Department to investigate Democrats’ top fundraising platform
In an executive order signed Thursday, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate allegations that Republicans have raised that ActBlue allows illegal campaign donations.
Democrats, condemned the move Thursday and ActBlue called it an “oppressive use of power” by the White House.
“The Trump Administration’s and GOP’s targeting of ActBlue is part of their brazen attack on democracy in America. Today’s escalation by the White House is blatantly unlawful and needs to be seen for what it is: Donald Trump’s latest front in his campaign to stamp out all political, electoral and ideological opposition,” ActBlue said in a statement.
ActBlue said it would pursue “all legal avenues to protect and defend itself.”
Trump’s order directs Bondi, in consultation with the Treasury Department, to investigate allegations that online fundraising platforms, and specifically ActBlue, have been used by some to “make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees.”
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Trump says Russia should keep Crimea
The president sat down with Time magazine for an interview marking 100 days in office, a milestone that he crosses next week.
During the conversation, which was , Trump said “Crimea will stay with Russia.” The strategic peninsula was seized by Russia in 2014, years before the full-scale invasion in 2022.
“Everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time,” the president said. “It’s been with them long before Trump came along.”
“They’ve had their submarines there for long before any period that we’re talking about, for many years. The people speak largely Russian in Crimea,” Trump said. “But this was given by Obama. This wasn’t given by Trump.”
How the public’s shift on immigration paved the way for Trump’s crackdown
Since returning to the White House, Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has and . But unlike in his first term, Trump’s efforts have not sparked the kind of widespread condemnation or protests that from some unpopular positions.
Instead, immigration has emerged as one of Trump’s strongest issues in public polling, reflecting both his grip on the Republican base and a broader shift in public sentiment that is driven in part, interviews suggest, by of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
The White House has seized on this shift, mocking critics and egging on Democrats to engage on an issue that Trump’s team sees as a win.
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Immigration is Trump’s strongest issue, but many say he’s gone too far, a new AP-NORC poll finds
Trump’s handling of immigration remains a point of strength as he takes to ramp up deportations and target people in the U.S. illegally, according to a new poll.
The survey from finds that 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, which is nearly 10 percentage points higher than his approval rating on the economy and trade with other countries.
While Trump’s actions remain divisive, there’s less of a consensus that the Republican president has overstepped on immigration than on other issues. Still, there’s little appetite for an even tougher approach. About half of Americans say he’s “gone too far” when it comes to deporting immigrants in the U.S. illegally. They’re divided on the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants who are accused of being gang members to El Salvador, and more oppose than support revoking foreign students’ visas over their participation in pro-Palestinian activism.
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