*By Carlo Versano*
One year after his "fire and fury" speech that threatened North Korea and its "little rocket man" leader with annihilation, President Trump addressed the annual United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, expanding on his "America First" motto and replacing North Korea with Iran as the main antagonist.
Trump said that the sanctions the U.S. imposed on Iran after pulling out of the nuclear deal have hurt the "corrupt dictatorship," while the president substantially softened his tone on North Korea ー which, according to Trump, has taken a "number of encouraging measures" since he last appeared in front of the body.
While North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has not launched a missile test since his June meeting with Trump in Singapore, there is little evidence that the regime has made meaningful steps toward denuclearization.
Trump also referenced OPEC, saying the cartel is "ripping off the rest of the world" by keeping oil prices high. The group has been reluctant to increase supply, and along with impending U.S. sanctions against Iranian crude exports, oil has risen to a four-year high.
But perhaps the most notable thread of Trump's UN address was an apparent change to the country's foreign aid policy.
"Moving forward, we're only going to give foreign aid to those who respect us and, frankly, are our friends," Trump said. That would be a major difference in how America has thought of aid in the post-war era, when it has been seen as a measure of altruism and an extension of diplomacy ー not something transactional.
For an administration that often views foreign policy in stark terms, Trump's speech stayed largely on message.
He rejected globalism and praised sovereignty, viewing the ideologies as mutually exclusive. At one point, he praised his White House for accomplishing "more than almost any administration in the history of our country," a statement that drew chuckles from the assembled world leaders.
"I didn't expect that reaction," Trump said, veering momentarily off script.
Lawmakers probing the cause of last month’s deadly Maui wildfire did not get many answers during Thursday's congressional hearing on the role the electrical grid played in the disaster.
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that federal disaster assistance is available for Louisiana, which is working to slow a mass inflow of salt water creeping up the Mississippi River and threatening drinking water supplies in the southern part of the state.
A new law in California will raise the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour next year, an acknowledgment from the state's Democratic leaders that most of the often overlooked workforce are the primary earners for their low-income households.
From Sunday, workers at the main United States base in Antarctica will no longer be able to walk into a bar and order a beer, after the U.S. federal agency that oversees the research program decided to stop serving alcohol.
House Republicans launched a formal impeachment hearing Thursday against President Joe Biden, promising to “provide accountability” as they probe the family finances and business dealings of his son Hunter and make their case to the public, colleagues and a skeptical Senate.
The FBI and other government agencies should be required to get court approval before reviewing the communications of U.S. citizens collected through a secretive foreign surveillance program, a sharply divided privacy oversight board recommended on Thursday.
The federal government is just days away from a shutdown that will disrupt many services, squeeze workers and roil politics as Republicans in the House, fueled by hard-right demands, force a confrontation over federal spending.
The Biden administration is finalizing a new rule that would cut federal funding for colleges that leave graduates with low pay and high debt after graduating.
The Biden administration is finalizing a new rule that would cut federal funding for colleges that leave graduates with low pay and high debt after graduating.
