https://www.reuters.com/world/us-aims-bring-4500-white-south-africans-per-month-refugees-document-says-2026-02-26/
WASHINGTON/JOHANNESBURG, Feb 26 (Reuters) - The U.S. aims to process 4,500 refugee applications from white South Africans per month, far above President Donald Trump's stated refugee program cap, and is installing trailers on embassy property in Pretoria to support the effort, a U.S. contracting document said.
The new target, contained in a previously unreported document from the U.S. State Department dated January 27, signals a push to ramp up admissions from South Africa, while refugee applications from other areas have been severely curtailed.
Trump has said the U.S. would only admit 7,500 total refugees from around the world in fiscal year 2026, while a much higher cap of 40,000 to 60,000 was discussed internally last year. Only 2,000 white South Africans had entered the U.S. as refugees as of January 31 under a program launched in May 2025, although the pace has picked up in recent months.
The ambitious target could also face administrative delays in Washington, which in recent weeks have halted all refugee travel to the U.S., including white South Africans, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.
The U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. The White House referred questions to the State Department.
The South African Chamber of Commerce in the U.S. said last year that more than 67,000 people had expressed interest in relocating.
Trump ordered a halt to refugee admissions into the U.S. after taking office in 2025 as part of his crackdown on legal and illegal immigration. But weeks later, he launched an effort to bring in white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity as refugees, saying they had been violently persecuted in the majority-Black country. South Africa's government has rejected that claim, while some refugee advocates have criticized the Trump policy.

The question of whether the U.S. economy is heading toward recession is a polarizing one.

The labor market has essentially stagnated with very few jobs being added on a monthly basis. Job openings have dropped to the lowest level since the post-pandemic period. Government and consumer debt levels are continuing to climb and affordability has been a hot topic for years.

One signal, however, indicates a recession might be closer than we realize.

The shape of the Treasury yield curve often provides clues as to which way the economy might be heading. The long end of the curve is more influenced by what's going on in the economy. At a high level, rates tend to rise when the economy is in good shape and fall when conditions look questionable. The short end of the curve is highly influenced by the current Fed Funds rate.

History shows that when the difference between the 10-year yield and the 3-month yield turns negative, it triggers a recession watch. In other words, short-term rates are probably set too high for conditions and that could lead to an economic slowdown or even a full-blown recession.

When that spread turns positive again, the recession clock starts. At this point, the Fed has probably started lowering rates, but not quickly enough to avoid a downturn.

It turns out that the pattern of this Treasury yield turning negative and then positive has been a reliable recession predictor.

For the past four recessions, the 10-year/3-month yield spread turned positive just before a recession officially started.

That spread just recently flipped from negative to positive again.

Does that mean a recession is imminent right now? Not necessarily, but it's not a good sign either. Sometimes, a recession can happen immediately, as it did during the tech bubble. Back in 1991, however, it took more than a year before a recession began.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/02/14/signal-triggered-before-last-4-recessions-again/

https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-omar-tlaib-institutionalized-shouting-state-union-address/story?id=130486313
President Donald Trump is bashing two of the Democrats who repeatedly interrupted his State of the Union speech by shouting at him, calling them "LUNATICS" who "look like they should be institutionalized" in a social media post on Wednesday.

During his Tuesday evening address, Trump attacked Democrats several times, with his comments on his immigration crackdown eliciting jeers from Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who repeatedly said the president was "killing Americans" -- a reference to the fatal shootings of Minnesota residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement earlier this year.

Their fatal shootings were amid the administration's “Operation Metro Surge,” which sent federal agents to Minnesota as part of its immigration enforcement. Border czar Tom Homan announced earlier this month that the effort was ending.

"When you watch Low IQ Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, as they screamed uncontrollably last night at the very elegant State of the Union, such an important and beautiful event, they had the bulging, bloodshot eyes of crazy people, LUNATICS, mentally deranged and sick who, frankly, look like they should be institutionalized,” Trump said.

In his social media post, Trump also said "we should send them back from where they came -- as fast as possible."

Omar, who fled Somalia and came to the U.S. as a refugee when she was a child, has been living in the country since she was 12 years old and is a U.S. citizen. Tlaib was born and raised in Detroit; she is the daughter of Palestinian immigrant parents.

Trump's social media post about Omar and Tlaib mark his first comments the day after his major address.

Omar has been the target of verbal attacks from Trump for years. Earlier this year, his attacks have come alongside escalated rhetoric describing the Somali community in Minnesota, the largest in the nation.

Trump Under Fire After Unearthed Tape Captures Him Joking About Sleeping With 13-Year-Olds

Fresh audio fuels outrage as questions mount over missing records, elite ties and calls for accountability

A resurfaced audio clip has reignited fury around Donald Trump, with critics demanding answers after he appeared to joke about sleeping with girls as young as 13. The recording, which has begun circulating widely online, emerges as scrutiny intensifies over the long shadow of Jeffrey Epstein and the powerful men once linked to him.

The timing of the tape's reappearance has amplified its impact. With public pressure mounting over the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related files, critics argue that long-buried material continues to emerge in ways that demand accountability. Supporters, however, insist the comments were flippant humour, not intended seriously.

In the newly circulated recording, Trump speaks candidly during an appearance on Howard Stern's radio show in 2006. When asked about dating younger women, he boasts that he would have no difficulty attracting women in their twenties. Pressed further on whether he had an age limit, he replies that he does, before adding comments referencing 12-year-olds and suggesting that 13 to 16 would be acceptable.

The tone in the clip is flippant, with laughter heard in the background. Critics argue that even as a joke, such remarks are deeply troubling given longstanding allegations tied to Epstein and his social circle. Supporters insist the comments were off-colour humour taken out of context.

The resurfacing of the tape comes at a moment when attention is once again focused on elite networks connected to Epstein. For many observers, the timing has amplified its impact, fuelling suspicions that long-buried material continues to surface as public pressure grows.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/trump-audio-epstein-scandal-1781692

The FAA restricted flights around Fort Hancock, Texas, after reports of a military laser system mistakenly downing a U.S. government drone.

Lawmakers criticized the Pentagon for lack of coordination following the incident. The FAA cited "special security reasons" for the airspace restrictions near the Mexican border.

It's believed that the Pentagon's high-energy laser system hit a Customs and Border Protection drone, which often encounters Mexican drones linked to drug cartels.

Flight restrictions will remain until June 24, but emergency flights can be authorized.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/faa-closes-airspace-fort-hancock-texas-after-reported-use-anti-drone-laser-2026-02-27/

Turns out Republicans were the real trannys all along

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/candace-owens-tpusa-charlie-kirk-death-conspiracy-theories-elijah-schaffer

TURNING POINT USA COMMUNICATIONS staffer Aubrey Laitsch was called into a meeting last month and abruptly told she was being fired, according to a video she posted online last week.

In her telling, the reason Laitsch was given for being let go involved a convoluted story about an Uber ride. It went like this:

A TPUSA executive had taken an Uber and asked his driver what he thought of the organization. The driver replied that he had heard it was in chaos in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination—and that no one inside TPUSA liked Erika Kirk, Kirk’s widow and now TPUSA’s CEO. Then the Uber driver revealed to the TPUSA executive that the source of his information was Laistch, who the driver claimed was a high school friend of his daughter’s.

A strange story, and one Laitsch said she didn’t buy. She then offered up another explanation—one she said didn’t come up during her discussion with TPUSA executives but which she sensed was a factor in her termination.

Laitsch, as she outlined in her video, seems to genuinely believe that her own organization had something to do with its founder’s murder or an ensuing coverup.

The unfounded claim that Charlie Kirk’s assassination was some sort of inside job is growing in popularity on the right after being promoted by YouTuber and former TPUSA employee Candace Owens. Laitsch claims that others at TPUSA are suspicious about Kirk’s murder too—and that they had been discussing among themselves how they couldn’t raise the issue internally.

“I just have a gut feeling that I was terminated from Turning Point because I am questioning the narrative of what happened to my role model and CEO, Charlie Kirk, on the day of his assassination,” Laitsch said in the video.

https://www.newsweek.com/entertainment/people-tourettes-speak-out-backlash-baftas-racial-slur-mounts-11565396

People With Tourette’s Speak Out As Backlash Over BAFTAs Racial Slur Mounts

People living with Tourette syndrome are responding to the viral moment at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards where a campaigner shouted the n-word during an award presentation.

Scottish Tourette's campaigner John Davidson, 54, shouted the racial slur during the Best Visual Effects presentation by Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo on February 22 at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where Davidson appeared as the real‑life subject of I Swear, a film that follows his experience growing up with Tourette’s.

Host Alan Cumming addressed the interruptions in real time, reminding the audience that Davidson’s tics were involuntary and something that he has no control over.

The clip quickly ignited debate online, with many accusing Davidson of racism while others pushed back, citing the nature of coprolalia—a symptom affecting some people with Tourette’s that can cause spontaneous, unwanted utterances of profanities or other inappropriate language.

Netflix has abandoned its proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets after the WBD board deemed Paramount Skydance’s revised all-cash offer of $31 per share for the entire company superior to Netflix’s $27.75 per share proposal.


The withdrawal removes the final major obstacle. It fully clears the pathway for Paramount, controlled by billionaire Larry Ellison and his son David Ellison, to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery outright.


This transaction hands father and son Larry and David Ellison a commanding media monopoly, consolidating Warner Bros. film and television studios, the vast Warner library, CNN, TBS, TNT and extensive streaming platforms under single private control.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/26/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-skydance-deal-superior-netflix.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyg7r3nd3ko
Four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, people across Ukraine have remembered their dead from a war which shows no sign of ending.

As the conflict enters a fifth year, the Ukrainian military continues to resist being overrun by Russian forces, but military losses are mounting on both sides and Ukraine's population faces near-daily aerial attacks.

On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelensky said "Ukraine never chose this war", adding: "We have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood."

The Kremlin, which believed it could capture Kyiv within days, acknowledged its war aims "haven't been fully achieved yet" and said it intended to continue attacking Ukraine.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov repeated a frequent Kremlin accusation that western support for Ukraine had enlarged the conflict, turning it into a "confrontation between Russia and the West".

Russia now controls just under 20% of Ukraine but the Ukrainian military has prevented it from capturing the entirety of the eastern Donbas region.

A minute's silence at 10:00 brought Kyiv to a halt on a sombre day for the country, though one on which a sense of solidarity was palpable.

In the city's Maidan square, where a growing host of flags has commemorated the dead since the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion, banners and heads were lowered as people stood in silent contemplation.

Surrounded by the glowing 11th Century mosaics of the Cathedral of St Sophia, in the heart of the capital, Zelensky and his wife Olena led a prayer service.

The Ukrainian president was accompanied by some of his most ardent European supporters, including Finland's Alexander Stubb, Sweden's Ulf Kristersson and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.

A "roaring economy," Trump said near the start of his record-breaking 1-hour, 47-minute speech, "is roaring like never before." He vowed to maintain unilateral tariffs on foreign goods despite an adverse Supreme Court decision.

But Americans tell pollsters, in survey after survey, that they are not satisfied with the economy 13 months into Trump's second presidency. Most Americans disapprove of how he's handling the economy (57%) and inflation (65%), according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll.

- Views on Trump’s handling of the economy tilt negative (41% approve, 57% disapprove). Americans have more negative views of Trump’s handling of tariffs on imported goods (34% approve, 64% disapprove) and inflation (32%, 65%).

- A plurality (48%) of Americans say the economy has gotten worse since Trump became president in January 2025, compared to 29% that say it has gotten better.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-roaring-economy-state-union-americans-struggle-rcna259802