Latest news with #Biden-era
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump appears to set Putin 'two-week' deadline on Ukraine
US President Donald Trump has appeared to set a two-week deadline for Vladimir Putin, threatening a different response if the Russian counterpart was still stringing him along. As the Kremlin escalated its attacks on Ukraine, Trump was asked in the Oval Office on Wednesday if he thought Putin wanted to end the war. "I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks," Trump told reporters, the latest amid a string of critical public remarks made by Trump about Putin. Since Sunday, Trump has written multiple posts on social media saying that Putin has gone "absolutely crazy" and is "playing with fire" after Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine. The bombardments by Russia are said to have been some of the largest and deadliest attacks since the start of the war, now in its fourth year. Russian strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, killed at least 13 people and injured dozens more, including children, over the weekend. And by Wednesday, the attacks had shown no signs of slowing down. In Trump's remarks about the escalation of violence and whether he thinks Putin is serious about ending the war, Trump said: "I'll let you know in about two weeks. "Within two weeks. We're gonna find out whether or not (Putin is) tapping us along or not. "And if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently." The comments are a sign of Trump's growing frustration, as the White House's repeated efforts to negotiate a deal between Russia and Ukraine appear ever more futile. This includes a recent two-hour phone call between Trump and Putin, after which the US president said the discussions went "very well". Putin walked away from the call saying he was ready to work with Ukraine on a "memorandum on a possible future peace agreement". That call was one week before Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles towards Ukraine's capital, according to Ukraine's air force. And a memorandum has yet to be produced by Russia. So far, Trump's threats have not appeared to concern Moscow sufficiently for it to concede to his demands. Trump has not delivered on previous such threats. Since taking office, Trump has only taken action against Ukraine, as Washington sought to steer the countries to Trump's demand for a truce. This included an eight-day suspension of US military assistance and intelligence sharing with Kyiv in March. Meanwhile the US administration has not publicly demanded any significant concessions from Russia. The White House rejects accusations of appeasing Moscow or failing to enforce its will, pointing out that all the Biden-era sanctions remain in force against Russia. But so far its mediation approach appears to have made the Kremlin more, not less, empowered. After the latest attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that "something has happened" to Putin, which the Kremlin said were comments made "connected to an emotional overload". Russia's attacks on Ukraine continued in the days afterwards. Trump then escalated his criticism. On Tuesday, he said Putin was "playing with fire" and that "lots of bad things" would have happened to Russia if it were not for Trump's involvement. A Kremlin aid responded to the latest Trump Truth Social post by saying: "We have come to the conclusion that Trump is not sufficiently informed about what is really happening." Putin aide Yury Ushakov told Russian state TV channel Russia-1 that Trump must be unaware of "the increasingly frequent massive terrorist attacks Ukraine is carrying out against peaceful Russian cities." On Wednesday, Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky that Berlin will help Kyiv produce long-range missiles to defend itself from Russian attack. The Kremlin has warned that any decision to end range restrictions on the missiles that Ukraine can use would be a dangerous change in policy that would harm efforts to reach a political deal. In the face of Russia's recalcitrance, Trump has frequently softened his demands, shifting the emphasis from his original call for an immediate 30-day ceasefire, to which only Ukraine agreed, to more recently demanding a summit with Putin to get what he says would be a breakthrough. Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov have upped their demands from earlier positions since the US restored contacts with the Russians in February. These have included a demand that Ukraine cede parts of its own country not even occupied by Russia and that the US recognises Crimea as a formal part of Russia. Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Moscow, calls this a "poison pill" introduced by Russia: Creating conditions Kyiv could never agree to in order to shift blame onto Ukraine in Trump's eyes. The war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and left much of Ukraine's east and south in ruins. Moscow controls roughly one-fifth of the country's territory, including Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. Zelensky has accused Moscow of delaying the peace process and said they were yet to deliver a promised memorandum of peace terms following talks in Istanbul. Peskov insisted the document was in its "final stages."
Axios
3 hours ago
- Health
- Axios
HHS cancels Moderna's $590M bird flu vaccine award
The Trump administration canceled a nearly $600 million award to Moderna to develop an mRNA vaccine for bird flu in humans, the company announced Wednesda y. Why it matters: It ends one of the remaining Biden-era efforts aimed at creating vaccines for pandemic preparedness. But the company said it would explore alternatives for further developing and manufacturing the shot. Driving the news: Moderna reported positive early stage data on the mRNA vaccine, saying clinical testing in roughly 300 adults was found to be generally well-tolerated. Participants achieved 98% immunity within three weeks of the second dose of the vaccine, the company said. "While the termination of funding from HHS adds uncertainty, we are pleased by the robust immune response and safety profile observed in this interim analysis of the Phase 1/2 study of our H5 avian flu vaccine and we will explore alternative paths forward for the program," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. "These clinical data in pandemic influenza underscore the critical role mRNA technology has played as a countermeasure to emerging health threats." Details: The funds awarded in January from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority were aimed at creating a line of defense against H5N1 in peoplethat matches the strains circulating in cows and birds.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Last year, Trump promised bitcoin bros a seat at the table. For better or worse, he wasn't lying
A version of this story appeared in CNN Business' Nightcap newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. Last July, Donald Trump made a campaign stop that served as his crypto coming out party. Trump, a guy who has an aide follow him around with a portable printer so he can read the internet, got onstage at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville and promised the moon to a crowd of extremely online crypto-Libertarians. 'Oh, you're going to be very happy with me,' he said, before vowing to make America the 'crypto capital of the planet.' With the zeal of the converted, he rattled off crypto shibboleths, promising to 'fire' Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler (the Biden-era bogeyman the industry loved to blame for its problems), to create a 'strategic national bitcoin stockpile' and even pardon Ross Ulbricht — the creator of the Silk Road digital marketplace used primarily for selling drugs on the dark web, who was serving a life sentence. Since retaking office, Trump has kept all of those promises (technically — Gensler stepped down before Trump could fire him). And he's gone even further. 'Maybe the most important thing that we did for this community, we reject regulators and we fired Gary Gensler, and we're gonna fire everybody like him,' said Vice President JD Vance at a crypto conference on Wednesday. It's hard to overstate how much the president has changed his tune on crypto, which he criticized in his first term as 'highly volatile and based on thin air.' Now, Trump's personal wealth is estimated to include $2.9 billion tied to his digital asset projects — representing some 37% of his total fortune, according to an April report from the left-leaning State Democracy Defenders Fund. Bitcoin, a bellwether for crypto, has shot up 67% since Trump spoke in Nashville last year. This week, Trump deepened his financial ties to the alternative financial industry that his administration is tasked with regulating. His two oldest sons and Vance took his spot headlining this year's Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, where they reassured supporters that Team Trump is, in Don Jr.'s words, 'seriously long crypto.' On Tuesday, Trump's media company said it would raise $2.5 billion to buy bitcoin — a move that mimics a corporate cash-management strategy popularized by MicroStrategy (now known as Strategy) and Tesla. Two things to know about what's going on here. First: Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns the president's social media platform, Truth Social, is not a company in a traditional sense of, like, a business that makes money. It is a perpetually unprofitable entity that generates almost no revenue, but public interest in Trump keeps the company's stock market value elevated — much like a meme stock. By becoming more of a bitcoin holding company, TMTG offers traditional investors exposure to bitcoin's gains (and losses) without the hassle of actually buying bitcoin and managing it in a digital wallet themselves. 'Holding bitcoin on a balance sheet is part financial strategy, part cultural signaling,' said Temujin Louie, CEO of blockchain platform Wanchain. 'TMTG's move is more politically charged. Given its ties to President Trump, any decision must inevitably align with the current administration's rhetoric and embrace of cryptocurrencies as a populist tool.' Second: The bitcoin play adds another halo of legitimacy around an asset that investors are still afraid of. The appearance of credibility has long eluded crypto because, well, it's just so useful for doing crimes, and its advocates haven't done a great job articulating mainstream use cases for digital money that you can't actually buy much with. But having an evangelist in the West Wing seems to be changing that. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of over $111,000 last week, fueled in part by the advancement of legislations that would create the first federal rules around stablecoins, a subcategory of crypto, a key step the industry has been lobbying for. 'I'm here today to say loud and clear with President Trump, crypto finally has a champion and an ally in the White House,' Vance said Wednesday at the Bitcoin Conference. He also implored crypto fans to carry last year's voting momentum forward for the 2026 midterms, and boasted that he personally still holds 'a fair amount of bitcoin today.' Lawyers and ethics experts aren't mincing words when they say Trump's crypto ventures open the door to all kinds of potential corruption. 'The only reason this isn't a crime is because the criminal conflict-of-interest statute does not apply to the president or the vice president,' Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, told CNN. 'The president and his family are investing in crypto — riding a bubble that may someday burst. The systemic impact on the economy could trigger another financial crisis.' The White House has repeatedly said the president has no conflicts of interest, and lashed out at the media for even asking. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently said it was 'frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.' CNN's Matt Egan contributed reporting. Sign in to access your portfolio
9 News
5 hours ago
- Business
- 9 News
Last year, Trump promised Bitcoin bros a seat at the table. He wasn't lying
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here BREAKING Man charged with murder after fatal Sydney house fire Last July, Donald Trump made a campaign stop that served as his crypto coming out party. Trump, a guy who has an aide follow him around with a portable printer so he can read the internet, got onstage at the Bitcoin Conference in Nashville and promised the moon to a crowd of extremely online crypto-Libertarians. "Oh, you're going to be very happy with me," he said, before vowing to make America the "crypto capital of the planet". President Donald Trump has embraced crypto in his second term. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) With the zeal of the converted, he rattled off crypto shibboleths, promising to "fire" Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler (the Biden-era bogeyman the industry loved to blame for its problems), to create a "strategic national Bitcoin stockpile" and even pardon Ross Ulbricht — the creator of the Silk Road digital marketplace used primarily for selling drugs on the dark web, who was serving a life sentence. Since retaking office, Trump has kept all of those promises (technically — Gensler stepped down before Trump could fire him). And he's gone even further. "Maybe the most important thing that we did for this community, we reject regulators and we fired Gary Gensler, and we're gonna fire everybody like him," Vice President JD Vance said at a crypto conference overnight. It's hard to overstate how much the president has changed his tune on crypto, which he criticised in his first term as "highly volatile and based on thin air". Now, Trump's personal wealth is estimated to include $US2.9 billion ($4.5 billion) tied to his digital asset projects — representing some 37 per cent of his total fortune, according to an April report from the left-leaning State Democracy Defenders Fund. Bitcoin, a bellwether for crypto, has shot up 67 per cent since Trump spoke in Nashville last year. This week, Trump deepened his financial ties to the alternative financial industry that his administration is tasked with regulating. His two oldest sons and Vance took his spot headlining this year's Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, where they reassured supporters that Team Trump is, in Don Jr's words, "seriously long crypto". On Tuesday, Trump's media company said it would raise $US2.5 billion ($3.9 billion) to buy Bitcoin — a move that mimics a corporate cash-management strategy popularised by MicroStrategy (now known as Strategy) and Tesla. Two things to know about what's going on here. First: Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns the president's social media platform, Truth Social, is not a company in a traditional sense of, like, a business that makes money. It is a perpetually unprofitable entity that generates almost no revenue, but public interest in Trump keeps the company's stock market value elevated — much like a meme stock . By becoming more of a Bitcoin holding company, TMTG offers traditional investors exposure to bitcoin's gains (and losses) without the hassle of actually buying bitcoin and managing it in a digital wallet themselves. "Holding Bitcoin on a balance sheet is part financial strategy, part cultural signalling," Temujin Louie, CEO of blockchain platform Wanchain "TMTG's move is more politically charged. Given its ties to President Trump, any decision must inevitably align with the current administration's rhetoric and embrace of cryptocurrencies as a populist tool." Second: the Bitcoin play adds another halo of legitimacy around an asset that investors are still afraid of. The appearance of credibility has long eluded crypto because, well, it's just so useful for doing crimes , and its advocates haven't done a great job articulating mainstream use cases for digital money that you can't actually buy much with. But having an evangelist in the West Wing seems to be changing that. Bitcoin hit an all-time high of over $US111,000 ($173,000) last week, fuelled in part by the advancement of legislations that would create the first federal rules around stablecoins , a subcategory of crypto, a key step the industry has been lobbying for. "I'm here today to say loud and clear with President Trump, crypto finally has a champion and an ally in the White House," Vance said at the Bitcoin Conference. He also implored crypto fans to carry last year's voting momentum forward for the 2026 midterms, and boasted that he personally still holds "a fair amount of Bitcoin today". Lawyers and ethics experts aren't mincing words when they say Trump's crypto ventures open the door to all kinds of potential corruption. "The only reason this isn't a crime is because the criminal conflict-of-interest statute does not apply to the president or the vice president," Richard Painter, a former White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, told CNN. "The president and his family are investing in crypto — riding a bubble that may someday burst. "The systemic impact on the economy could trigger another financial crisis." The White House has repeatedly said the president has no conflicts of interest, and lashed out at the media for even asking. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently said it was "frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit". cryptocurrency Bitcoin World finance Donald Trump CONTACT US Property News: 'Stressful': Perth mum's dilemma after rental mix-up.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Wednesday's Mini-Report, 5.28.25
Today's edition of quick hits. * In the Middle East: 'Hamas' Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of the group's deceased leader Yahya Sinwar, has been killed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers Wednesday.' * Kseniia Petrova's case: 'A federal judge on Wednesday granted bail to Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova, who has spent more than three months in custody after failing to declare frog embryos upon arriving in the United States. U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss in Vermont said Petrova's continued detention by immigration authorities was unjustified and raised serious legal concerns about the government's actions.' * A disappointing ruling from a Trump-appointed judge: 'A federal judge refused Wednesday to temporarily block the Trump administration from removing and replacing the director of the U.S. Copyright Office. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled from the bench that the office director, Shira Perlmutter, hasn't met her legal burden to show how removing her from the position would cause her to suffer irreparable harm.' * Given that a majority of Missouri voters last fall to approve a state constitutional amendment that guarantees the 'fundamental right to reproductive freedom,' developments like these probably shouldn't happen: 'Planned Parenthood officials say they have halted abortions in Missouri after the state Supreme Court ruled that a judge must reevaluate orders that had allowed the procedure to resume earlier this year.' * All things considered, Musk isn't the only one 'disappointed' with Republicans' regressive bill: 'Elon Musk broke with President Donald Trump on the House-passed domestic policy bill, saying in an interview that he was 'disappointed' that it would increase the federal deficit.' * The White House needs to dial down the inflammatory rhetoric: 'Threats against federal judges have risen drastically since President Trump took office, according to internal data compiled by the U.S. Marshals Service. In the five-month period leading up to March 1 of this year, 80 individual judges had received threats, the data shows. Then, over the next six weeks, an additional 162 judges received threats, a dramatic increase. That spike in threats coincided with a flood of harsh rhetoric — often from Mr. Trump himself — criticizing judges who have ruled against the administration and, in some cases, calling on Congress to impeach them.' * Crypto scores another win: 'The Labor Department on Wednesday yanked Biden-era guidance that strongly discouraged employers against offering cryptocurrency in workers' 401(k) plan options.' See you tomorrow. This article was originally published on
