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Mar 24, 2026 - World

Iranian officials have apparently refused to continue talks with President Donald Trump's two closest allies behind key negotiations in the Middle East, according to reports on Tuesday. Negotiations involving Iran, Pakistan and the United States were expected to take place in Islamabad as early as this week or next; however, Trump's picks to discuss the ongoing military conflict were reportedly not wanted at the table, The Guardian reported.Instead, another top Trump administration official was under consideration to join the talks: Vice President JD Vance. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has suggested his country would be willing to help "facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks" and end the conflict. "Pakistani sources said the US vice-president, JD Vance, was being put forward as a probable chief negotiator from the US side if talks went ahead," according to The Guardian. "Iranian sources have said they would refuse to sit down with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, or Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who led the nuclear negotiations with Iran before the war."Kushner and Witkoff were involved in talks with Iran prior to the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes that launched on Feb. 28. Since the war started, Iranian officials have reportedly decided they do not want to engage with the two men. Iran has suggested that the two knowingly misled Iranian officials during prior negotiations and were planning the attack all along, despite the closed-door conversations. "With the previous negotiating team, there’s no chance," one diplomatic source told The Guardian. "The Iranian side regards the request for negotiations as another round of deception for the US-Israeli regime to find out a loophole to aggravate the strikes again."

Mar 24, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was angry about settling the Iran war. Trump was taking press questions after swearing in new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office when he gave a frank response about the status of the ongoing military conflict in the Middle East, which has now reached its fourth week and left 13 troops dead and 232 service members wounded.This was the second time in two days that Trump had punted the blame to Hegseth over the war. On Monday, during a visit to Tennessee, Trump claimed that Hegseth urged him to pursue joint military strikes with Israel on Iran. "I don’t want to say this, but I have to. I said to Pete and General Caine, I think this thing [the war] is going to be settled very soon. They said, 'Oh, that’s too bad.' Pete didn’t want it to be settled," Trump said. Political commentator Brian Krassenstein shared the video on X, saying, "In other words our Sec. of War doesn't want peace, he wants war." Several other people commented on social media after the president's remarks. "Caine getting tossed under the bus for good measure now too. Dude is just out here blaming everyone lmao," commentator Bill DeMayo wrote on X."Trump trying to spread blame like butter on toast," progressive commentator Bill Johnson wrote on X. BREAKING: Trump just said that Pete Hegseth was angry that there may be a settlement in the Iran war. He said that Hegseth doesn’t want it to be settled. "I don’t want to say this but I have to… Pete didn’t want it to be settled."In other words our Sec. of War doesn't… pic.twitter.com/LcbAagDFHw— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 24, 2026

Mar 24, 2026 - World

Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified Tuesday in a federal criminal case involving his once-roommate and friend, former Rep. David Rivera, saying during cross-examination that he did not know about Rivera's alleged crimes, CBS News reported. Rivera has been accused of secretly lobbying for the Venezuelan government. Rubio and Rivera had a close relationship in the past. Both are Cuban American immigrants from Miami, and Rivera was with Rubio when he picked out his wife's engagement ring. Rivera stood by Rubio's side as he pushed his political career forward while they both pursued their political ambitions in the Florida House of Representatives. "Rubio described a 2017 meeting with Rivera where he said 'insiders in the regime in Venezuela' had convinced former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to step aside, and Rubio said he had no knowledge that Rivera had allegedly been contracted out by a subsidiary of a Venezuelan state oil company to arrange the meeting," according to CBS News.Rubio described his response to the claims that Maduro was planning to step down. "I was skeptical that it was true," Rubio said. "Because we've had so many other people" attempt to do the same thing with "double dealers who were constantly making these claims."Federal prosecutors allege that Rivera and his codefendant Esther Nuhfer sought to influence the first Trump administration to lower political tensions and tone down sanctions on behalf of Maduro and then-Foreign Minister and now interim Venezuelan president Delcy Rodriguez. Rivera and Nuhfer were indicted in 2022 by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida for failing to register as a foreign agent and money laundering. "Prosecutors allege that the pair were hired in a $50 million contract in exchange for three months of lobbying work in 2017 on behalf of a U.S.-based subsidiary of a Venezuela state oil company, PDVSA, which operates under the name CITGO," CBS News reported.The indictment revealed that both Rivera and Nuhfer were accused of trying to lobby Rubio, who was at the time a Miami Republican senator, and Kellyanne Conway, former White House advisor, on behalf of the Venezuelan government's high ranking leaders. "The attempts to meet Conway were unsuccessful, prosecutors said, but added that the pair did arrange two meetings with Rubio, who is a longtime friend of Rivera's and had been an outspoken critic of the Maduro regime," according to CBS News.This was the first time in more than 40 years that a current Cabinet member was called as a witness in a federal trial, according to The Washington Post.Rubio was asked what he knew about the alleged $50 million contract between Rivera, Nuhfera and a Venezuela oil subsidiary. "I have no such knowledge other than what is in the press and what is in the indictment," Rubio said.

Mar 24, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump claimed to have received a "very big present" from the leaders of Iran.During a Tuesday press conference at the White House, Trump was asked who his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff were negotiating with to end the war with Iran."We killed all their leadership, and then they met to choose new leaders, and we killed all of them," Trump noted. "And now we have a new group, and we can easily do that, but let's see how they turn out."The president claimed that he had accomplished "regime change" in Iran."This is regime change, right?" he said. "They're going to make a deal. They did something yesterday that was amazing, actually. They gave us a present. And the present arrived today. It was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money.""And I'm not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize," he added. "And they gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it. So that meant one thing to me. We're dealing with the right people."Trump said the "present" was not related to Iran's nuclear capabilities."It was oil and gas related," he explained. "And it was a very nice thing they did. But what it showed me is that we're dealing with the right people. Because, you know, you don't know, because the leadership was killed. All gone.""But we're dealing with a group of people that I think turned out. And the present — the gift they made to us was very significant. And they said they were going to do it, and it happened. And they're the only ones that could have done it."

Mar 24, 2026 - World

Marco Rubio welcomes release of Dennis Coyle, who was detained in January last year for violating unspecified lawsAfghanistan’s Taliban authorities have released the American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for over a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.A statement from the ministry said the academic researcher had been released in Kabul on Tuesday, following an appeal from his family and after Afghanistan’s supreme court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient”. Continue reading...