Top World News

President Donald Trump has sent envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad, Pakistan, this weekend for continued negotiations with Iran — but Vice President JD Vance did not plan to attend — something a CNN analyst said was telling in a report on Friday. Vance, who previously attended marathon talks with the Iranians earlier this month, will be on standby and available to join by phone or travel if need be, CNN reported. Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's Speaker of the Parliament, who the White House views as Vance's counterpart and head of the Iranian delegation, will not attend either.The timeline for the ongoing war has remained uncertain, with Trump telling reporters on Thursday "Don't rush me."CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel signaled that the Iran strategy has appeared to shift within the White House. "Let's be hopeful. Let's be optimistic. It's moving in in the right direction," Gangel said. "I think everyone would like this war to end," she added. "But we've seen a roller coaster here. And in when dealing with the Iranians, I've been told over and over by intelligence experts, they're really good at talking. And they will talk and talk until the cows come home. But getting to substantive negotiations is a whole other matter. So let's see where this goes. I do think it's interesting that Vice President Vance is not going. I think it says something about where we think this is at the moment."Members of Vance's team were reportedly already in Pakistan for the talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Iranians have not yet confirmed if they will meet with the American delegation.

As Donald Trump’s Iran war drags into its eighth week with no end in sight, there is concern both inside the White House and outside among outside presidential advisers that Trump’s haphazard and scattershot pronouncements are only making things more difficult.And that is leaving White House officials “fatigued” and wondering what each day will bring.According to reporting from MS NOW's Jake Traylor, Jackie Alemany, and Laura Barrón-López, Trump's messaging on the war has shifted consistently — at times, hour by hour. Within 48 hours last weekend, he went from saying Iran had "agreed to everything" toward a potential deal to warning that if Iran did not sign on the dotted line, the "whole country is getting blown up."The whiplash continues relentlessly. He has extended the war's timeline by weeks, offered Iran a handful of deal extensions after saying he likely would not, and most recently indicated there was "no time frame" for the war to conclude, swiftly followed by a threat that Iran has "a matter of days" to reach a deal.White House aides are essentially lying to the public, MS NOW is reporting. A former White House official exposed the dysfunction starkly: "Ninety percent of White House top aides that are speaking publicly right now don't necessarily believe what they're saying, but they know it's satisfying what the president wants them to say. Ultimately, that's their goal. They're not communicators for the public; they are communicators for the president."The result is an administration with no credibility, with that same ex-insider admitting, "From the outside looking in, it is very clear that the goalposts are moving all over the place. That doesn't scream confidence, it doesn't scream that we are anywhere close to a resolution."The volume of Trump's media appearances is also overwhelming staff. Two additional White House officials told MS NOW they are frustrated by the volume of calls the president takes from reporters — in some weeks totaling dozens — and noted the difficulty of keeping up with and defending each of his minute-by-minute pronouncements.The administration lacks even a coherent rationale for the war, the analysts say. "[The White House] hasn't done a successful job of nailing down one reason why we're there. They've sort of thrown every reason out there. If they could narrow it down to one message — clear 'feel the threat, feel the urgency' — I think they'd have better success," a source hopefully suggested."The president is going to dictate when the war ends," one White House official said. "In the meantime, we planned to ramp up the messaging on everything else, but obviously now those are all tied to the war as well."

Following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s press conference, which was once again notable for his combative performance with the press, MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire suggested the former Fox News personality appeared to want to avoid addressing Donald Trump’s war of words with Pope Leo XIV about the Iran conflict.Hegseth, who can be counted on to bristle at any suggestion that the Middle East war was unfounded or is being conducted poorly, was asked about the Pope’s word criticizing the war in Iran, which led the president to complain bitterly, with Catholic Vice President JD Vance chiming in to tell the pontiff to stick to matters to “morality.” "We know what our mission is,” Hegseth demurred before adding, “We know what authority we have. We're very clear about that."That brief exchange drew the attention of “Morning Joe’s” Lemire.“Not a lot of news there per se,” he said immediately following the end of the press availability. ”I will say. Secretary Hegseth did acknowledge, though he insisted, that some traffic is making its way through the Strait of Hormuz despite Iran having closed it. He did acknowledge a lot less than they'd like and that it is dangerous, you know, travel there.”“He sort of pulled his punches with the Pope when he was asked a question about the Pope's condemnation of this war. So perhaps the administration has realized you shouldn't escalate their conflict with a representative of the higher power,” he quipped to MS NOW’s David Rohde. - YouTube youtu.be

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth argued that his so-called Department of War should win the Nobel Peace Prize every year after initiating a military conflict in Iran that has caused death and destabilized the world's oil supply.During a press conference on Friday, TMZ asked Hegseth what he felt while carrying out "this extreme level of violence.""Do you feel like you're on a power trip?" the correspondent wondered. "It's a very TMZ question," Hegseth shot back. "My only thought process is to ensure that our war fighters have everything they need to be successful, defeat and destroy the enemy, and they come home.""Because war is violent," he continued. "War requires doing difficult things."A second TMZ correspondent noted that Hegseth had insisted on calling the Department of Defense the Department of War despite a lack of congressional authorization."Would you consider changing the name again to the Department of Peace since that's what we're all after?" the reporter wondered. "It's a great question, actually," Hegseth replied. "You go from defense to war because you want to be proactive about peace through strength.""In fact, I once did a video about the one institution that you win the Nobel Peace Prize every single year is the United States military," he added, "because we are the guarantor of the safety and security not just of our country but of a lot of people in this world."

A former CIA director cautioned that recent missteps by the Trump administration in its handling of the war in Iran could spell "real trouble for the future."Leon Panetta, the former CIA director, said on CNN on Thursday that "badly stalled" talks with Iran will make a military response more likely on both sides."While talks are stalemated, that could be real trouble for the future," Panetta explained. "The longer we are held back from somehow sitting down and beginning those discussions, I think the problem that I see is that the earlier the tendency to respond militarily will be."Vice President JD Vance was supposed to travel to Pakistan to talk with the Iranian side on Friday, but the White House confirmed that he would not go. Panetta said that "we should be sending our representatives to Abbottabad. We should have Iran sending its representatives to Abbottabad. They need to sit down. They need to start talking. There's an awful lot that needs to be discussed."Panetta also spoke about how the sudden departure of John Phelan from his post as Navy Secretary will make the U.S. military look unstable while the United States fights an Iranian naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz with no deadline."We're in a war. We've deployed a lot of forces," Panetta said. "This is not a good time to have a disruption in leadership. What you want to show the enemy, what you want to show the world, is that we've got our act together and that everybody is operating as a team."

President Donald Trump reacted on Thursday to reports on where negotiations stand with Iran amid the ongoing Israeli-U.S. war. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he argued that reports saying he was uneasy about the ongoing conflict were inaccurate and tried to set the record straight, while also attacking The New York Times and CNN for their reporting. He wrote the following: "For those people, fewer in number now than ever before, that are reading The Failing New York Times, or watching Fake News CNN, that think that I am 'anxious' to end the War (if you would even call it that!) with Iran, please be advised that I am possibly the least pressured person ever to be in this position," Trump wrote. He also tried to claim the outlets had lost their integrity and audience while unleashing threats on Iran. "I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t — The clock is ticking!" Trump wrote. "The reason some of the Media is doing so poorly with Subscribers and Viewers is because they no longer have credibility. Iran’s Navy is lying at the bottom of the Sea, their Air Force is demolished, their Anti Aircraft and Radar Weaponry is gone, their leaders are no longer with us, the Blockade is airtight and strong and, from there, it only gets worse — Time is not on their side! A Deal will only be made when it’s appropriate and good for the United States of America, our Allies and, in fact, the rest of the World."

The artificial intelligence boom has been wildly profitable for tech billionaires and catastrophically hollow for everyone else, a new Mother Jones report said this week. Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman have built fortunes on AI hype while delivering false promises, toxic platforms, and minimal actual job creation.According to Mother Jones columnist Tim Murphy's investigation, "The AI bubble has been a boon to the portfolios and prospects of the tech world's biggest players. Their companies are vying for hegemony and their net worths are trending toward Mount Olympus."Murphy documented a pattern of deception and excess: "Beyond the hype, you can find a litany of false promises, questionable investments, and just plain decadence, complicating both their predictions for the future and claims to come in peace."Bezos's Project Prometheus AI initiative carries a $38 billion valuation and is "focused on physical AI designed to interact with real-world industrial processes, such as manufacturing, aerospace engineering, and semiconductor production."Meanwhile, Bezos has dismantled the Washington Post after acquiring it in 2013 with promises of a "new golden era." After he nixed a Kamala Harris presidential endorsement, the paper suffered a mass exodus of subscribers, a $100 million 2025 loss, and a 40-plus percent purging of its staff. Yet Bezos still had enough leftover cash to purchase a 246-foot yacht for $75 million to join his previously purchased 417-foot yacht, Murphy reported.Zuckerberg burned through $77 billion before pivoting to AI. Mother Jones reports that 10 percent of Meta's profits came from scam ads — funds that also financed his 4,500 square foot underground bunker in Hawaii.Musk's AI platform X has been hit with allegations of 679,584 antisemitic posts over a one-year period between 2024 and 2025. Musk's Grok generated 1.8 million graphic images of women during a nine-day period last winter as his net worth continued to ascend to $850 billion, the report said.Trump lauded OpenAI's Stargate data centers as a job-creation engine that would "create 100,000 jobs 'almost immediately.'" In reality, however, "only 100 employees needed to operate Stargate's Abilene, Texas, campus once construction is completed," according to the report.Despite a promise to invest $1.4 trillion in AI infrastructure over the next eight years, the company's reported revenue in 2025 came in at $20 billion, a 70-to-1 spending-to-revenue ratio for a company promising to reshape the economy.

Pro-MAGA news network Real America's Voice pulled the plug on host Gina Loudon after she blamed the rising costs of fuel on President Donald Trump's war in Iran.On Thursday, co-host David Brody asked Loudon to comment on Trump's decision to order the U.S. military to fire on small Iranian boats, possibly breaking a fragile ceasefire agreement."Can we go to Terrence instead?" Loudon asked."My interpretation of this is this is President Trump's way of saying the ceasefire is over," co-host Terrence Bates volunteered. "Hey, Dr. Gina, I don't want to put you on the spot, even though I am, but I'm curious about your hesitance. You seem this morning at least a bit hesitant to talk about this.""I think your average American out there who's trying to, you know, get their family budget together and, you know, look at their, if they can take a vacation with their family this summer, with gas prices and things," Loudon explained. "And I know people don't want me to mention gas prices. That's become an attack on Trump, but gas prices are a real thing.""They're not just in our gas tank, but in our consumer goods, et cetera, et cetera," she continued. "And I think that they're not, they don't know from day to day whether in a ceasefire or not, because it changes every day."As Loudon spoke, she said the control room encouraged her to wrap up her remarks."And now I've said too much, and the producers are shutting me up," she admitted. "See, that's what happens when you wind me up and get me talking to you."