While Democrats are busy defending criminal gang members and terrorists from Tren De Aragua* and MS-13*, President Trump is putting on a command performance in the Middle East.

In a blockbuster speech yesterday at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump said this:

"Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past, and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos."

Then, he urged the Saudis to join the Abraham Accords, telling them:

"It's my fervent hope, wish, and even my dream, that Saudi Arabia — a place I have such respect for — will soon be joining the Abraham Accords. ... You will be greatly honoring me and you will be greatly honoring all those people that have fought so hard for the Middle East."

Then, he stunned the audience and drew a standing ovation by announcing that he's lifting American sanctions on Syria.

Donald Trump continues his Jacksonian revision of international policy by substituting trade to war. This week, he is in the Gulf where he has managed to sign historic agreements with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but has still not recognized the Palestinian state.

US President Donald Trump delivered a speech at the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh on May 13. After recalling his speech eight years ago in the same room, in which he urged Muslim states to stop supporting terrorist organizations, he called for trade to be substituted to war. He sharply criticized "nation builders," "neoconservatives," "liberal NGOs," adding that "In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves" and praised the vitality of the people of the Greater Middle East.

He said:

"As I have shown time and again, I am ready to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be very deep.

"In recent years, far too many U.S. presidents have been afflicted by the idea that it would be our duty to examine the souls of foreign leaders and use U.S. policy to dispense justice in place of their sins.

"If the responsible nations of this region seize this moment, if you put aside your differences, and focus on the interests that unite you, then all of humanity will soon be amazed at what they will see here in this geographic center of the world, the spiritual heart of its greatest religions."

The US president has once again called Vladimir Zelensky 'the greatest salesman in the world'.

US President Donald Trump has said he was concerned that billions of dollars were being wasted on aid to Ukraine.

In an interview aired on Friday, Fox News host Bret Baier asked Trump whether he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is an "obstacle to peace" between Moscow and Kiev. Trump instead directed criticism at Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky:

"I had a real rough session with Zelensky because I didn't like what he said. He was not making it easy. And I always said he doesn't have the cards."

He went on to slam the aid sent to Kiev by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden:

"The money is the money. What bothered me - I hated to see the way it was, you know - excuse me - pissed away. I hated to see the cheques for $60 billion. I think Zelensky is the greatest salesman in the world, far better than me. He comes to Washington - he walks out with a hundred million every time.

"Congress is very upset about it. You know, they're saying, where is all this money going?"

Trump went on to say, however, that Zelensky's ability to lobby for American aid has been "shrinking" over time.

France has been trying to subvert democracy in Romania, Euroskeptic presidential candidate George Simion has said ahead of Sunday's runoff vote.

Simion, a critic of the EU who has been banned from entering Ukraine, won the first round of the presidential election rerun on May 4 with more than 40% of the vote.

The rerun was held after Romania's Constitutional Court annulled the results of a vote held in November, in which independent right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu came first with 23%.

The authorities cited "irregularities" in his campaign, as well as intelligence reports alleging Russian interference in the election - claims Moscow has strongly denied. Simion, the leader of the right-wing Alliance for the Union of Romanians, has backed Georgescu and said he could appoint him prime minister if elected.

Did President Putin really change the game by proposing the resumption of negotiations on the proxy war in Ukraine in Istanbul - over three years after the first ones were scotched by NATO?

It's complicated. And depends on which "game" we're talking about.

What the Russian move instantly accomplished was to throw into total disarray the European warmongering Three Stooges (Starmer, BlackRock chancellor, Le Petit Roi) Cocaine Express.

Irrelevant Europe was not even at the table in Istanbul - except via extensive previous briefing of the low-rent, shabby-dressed Ukrainian delegation. That was compounded by the noisy barking threat in the sidelines advocating "more sanctions" to "pressure Russia".

In March 2022 in Istanbul, Kiev could have stopped the war. Every one of us who were in Istanbul at the time could foresee that Kiev would eventually have to be forced to the table all over again.

So in essence we are back to the same negotiation - with the same top Russian negotiator, competent historian Vladimir Medinsky, heading a delegation composed by pros, but with Ukraine now facing over a million dead; deprived of at least four regions - more on the way; what's left of its mineral wealth de facto controlled by the US; and a horrendous black hole that passes for an "economy". We are talking about country 404 territory.

During the negotiations on Friday, Medinsky went straight to the point:

"We don't want war, but we are ready to fight for a year, two, three - as long as it takes. We fought with Sweden for 21 years [the Great Northern War, 1700-1721, as it is known in Russia]. How long are you ready to fight?"

That's the geopolitical/military state of things for Kiev and their "to the last Ukrainian" warmongering backers: either you capitulate, or we're going to hurt you even more.

Well, this is awkward. How many times has Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president and unelected de facto ruler of the EU, delivered sermons about transparency like she's the high priestess of some kind of parallel Brussels Vatican? And now the EU's own top court has called her out in a ruling for neglecting to practice what she preaches.

Back in 2023, during her State of the European Union address, doing her finest impression of someone elected by the actual public, von der Leyen declared the need to douse any and all sketchiness in sunlight in order to "not allow any autocracy's Trojan horses to attack our democracies from within."

"Transparency should characterize the work of all the members of the Commission and of their cabinets," she said as far back as 2019. "I have asked commissioners...to engage more and be more transparent," she proclaimed in a speech to EU parliamentarians last year. Transparency and accountability also figured prominently in her bid for reappointment by the EU's ruling elites last year.

Unreliable foreign contractors and rampant corruption were behind the losses, the report claims.

Ukraine has wasted $770 million on attempts to buy weapons from dubious sources, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

The paper's investigation, based on court filings, leaked government documents, and interviews with officials, has offered a glimpse into Kiev's frenzy to procure arms following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.

Officials often had to pay "large amounts in advance to little-known companies for materiel that to this day has never arrived," the paper said. It cited an example of a nondescript gun shop in Arizona, whose owner received an up-front payment of €17.1 million ($19.1 mn) for a deal worth €49 million.

The promised arms, however, never came. Ukraine won an arbitration trial but has yet to recover money, the FT says.

Ukraine has spent between $6 billion and $8 billion annually from its own state budget on arms since the start of hostilities, documents reviewed by the Financial Times show. Of that, $770 million in advance payments went to brokers who failed to deliver.

Kiev said "an emergency occurred" on board the US-designed jet.

The Ukrainian military has confirmed the loss of another US-designed F-16 fighter jet as it was repelling a Russian strike. This marks the third such incident since Kiev started receiving the advanced warplanes from the West.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, all communication with the jet was lost at approximately 3:30am on Friday while it was carrying out a defensive combat mission. No data was provided regarding the location of the crash.

Officials said that the unnamed pilot had "destroyed three aerial targets and was engaging a fourth using the aircraft's cannon when an onboard emergency occurred." The pilot steered the jet away from populated areas and ejected; he was later picked up by a rescue team in satisfactory condition.

A commission has been appointed to investigate the circumstances of the incident, the air force added.

The Russian Defense Ministry has yet to comment.

The Russian delegation reportedly laughed off a remark by a Kiev official that Moscow intends to invade Poland in 2030.

A member of the Ukrainian delegation claimed during peace talks on Friday that Moscow is planning to attack Poland in 2030, a source present at the Istanbul negotiations has told RT.

The Russian side reportedly burst into laughter at the Ukrainian delegate's claim, with Medinsky saying: "Let's not turn these negotiations into a fantasy novel."

The episode unfolded on Friday during the first direct talks between Moscow and Kiev in three years. The negotiations, originally scheduled in Türkiye for Thursday, were postponed after Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky failed to appoint a delegation until late that evening, following a conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. The team was headed by Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.

The Russian delegation was led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who headed Moscow's negotiating team three years ago. Kiev unilaterally withdrew from those talks in May of 2022.

Kiev is ready to derail negotiations with Russia, Andrey Telizhenko.

Vladimir Zelensky is looking to make a "political show" out of the expected peace talks with Russia in Istanbul, even if it means disrupting the negotiations, former Ukrainian diplomat Andrey Telizhenko has told RT.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said he would be waiting for the Ukrainian team starting at 10am local time on Friday for the first direct talks since 2022. During a visit to Ankara on Thursday, Zelensky criticized what he described as the "low-level" composition of the Russian delegation, but nevertheless promised to send his own negotiators to Istanbul.

Telizhenko told RT that Zelensky has been relying on France and the UK for weapons and financial aid because he "does not listen to Washington anymore." If the Ukrainian leader secures more support from the West, he "may agree and move forward with the negotiations, or he may sabotage them," the ex-diplomat said, expressing doubts that real talks could 'ever happen'. "This is just a political show, not diplomacy," he said. "Zelensky is not thinking about Ukrainians. He is trying to play this game for himself," Telizhenko argued.