The truth is not that Americans won't do these jobs; it's that they have been priced out of being able to afford to do them.

When California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law in 2023 that increased the state's minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 per hour, he pledged that they would enjoy a "stronger voice and seat at the table." But the California fast food industry has lost more than 19,000 jobs since the law went into effect on April 1, 2024, according to a recent analysis by the Employment Policies Institute. Since Newsom signed the law in September 2023, California has been responsible for more than a quarter of America's fast food job losses.

As Washington prepares to launch land attacks inside Venezuela, a long-awaited phone call between the White House and Caracas aimed at defusing the crisis carried a blunt message for strongman Nicolás Maduro: You can save yourself and those closest to you, but you must leave the country now, sources familiar with the exchange told the Miami Herald. Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article313261442.html#storylink=cpy

Before Rahmanullah Lakanwal settled in a quiet part of Washington state, he was part of a secret unit of Afghans who operated under CIA direction and hunted down Taliban commanders in highly dangerous missions. They "took malignant actors off the battlefield and saved American lives, period," said Andrew Sullivan, who served as an officer with the Army's 1st Division in Afghanistan and is now executive director of No One Left Behind, a nonprofit that helps resettle Afghans who worked for the U.S. military during the war.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says talks with Ukraine over a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war were productive, but there's "more work to be done". The talks, held in Florida, were attended by a Ukrainian delegation led by national security council secretary Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's new chief negotiator. Also at the meeting were President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Witkoff is due to travel on Monday to Moscow for talks with the Russian side, a US official told the BBC's partner CBS News.

A conservative candidate held a narrow lead in Honduras' presidential race that had been thrown into disarray in its final days due to the surprise endorsement of President Trump. Trump last week urged Hondurans on Truth Social to elect Nasry "Tito" Asfura, 67, the candidate of the conservative National party. On Friday, Trump said that he planned to pardon a former Honduran president from Asfura's party serving a prison sentence in the U.S. for turning the Central American nation into a narco-state. With 34% of total votes counted by the National Electoral Council, Asfura, the former mayor of the capital city of Tegucigalpa, was leading with 40.6%. Conservative rival Salvador Nasralla, the 72-year-old sports journalist and media personality of the Liberal party, was behind with 38.8% of the votes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks in the Kremlin on Friday, focusing on energy cooperation, the war in Ukraine and the future of bilateral relations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Presidential Adviser Yuri Ushakov and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, as well as Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, also attended the meeting, which marked the 14th encounter between the two leaders.

Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, claimed on Sunday that the suspect in the national guard shooting in Washington DC was "radicalized" in the US and blamed the Biden administration, though the suspect's asylum was approved under Donald Trump. The shooting suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was granted asylum under the Trump administration in April 2025. He worked with CIA backed units in Afghanistan, coming to the US in September 2021 under an Operation Allies Welcome program.

More than what it seems. The post The musician who changed bass playing for Paul McCartney: “I started to realise the power you had” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.