Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is vying for another White House mandate, said he thinks that Taiwan should pay the U.S. for defense, claiming that the country “doesn’t give us anything.” His comment was in response to a question on whether he would defend Taiwan against China, as part of an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek published Tuesday.

Big names in tech are turning Donald Trump’s way, a shift likely to be accelerated by excitement over Elon Musk’s nine-figure commitment and former venture capitalist JD Vance joining the ticket. Those two developments have punctuated a brewing cultural change in traditionally liberal Silicon Valley, as investors and executives announce their support for Trump over issues including the Biden administration’s stance on artificial-intelligence regulation and crackdowns on...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two-thirds of Democrats say President Joe Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and let his party nominate a different candidate, according to a new poll, sharply undercutting his post-debate claim that “average Democrats” are still with him even if some “big names” are turning on him. The new survey by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted as Biden works to salvage his candidacy two weeks after his debate flop, also found that...

When Donald Trump on Monday chose Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate it excited populists — and unnerved some business elites. Later that evening, the president of the Teamsters, Sean O’Brien, gave a prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention. “Over the last 40 years, the Republican Party has rarely pursued strong relationships with organized labor,” O’Brien said. “There are some in the party who stand in active opposition to labor unions — this too must change,” he...

Former rivals and current Senate hopefuls on Tuesday extolled former President Donald J. Trump’s record and denounced, sometimes inaccurately, the levels of illegal immigration and crime in the country. On the second night of the Republican National Convention, former primary challengers to Mr. Trump, including Nikki R. Haley, who served as United Nations ambassador in his administration, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas made their case for Mr. Trump to return to...

A photo shared on X allegedly shows a 4chan post from an officer claiming the Secret Service did not let him shoot the man who attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump.  Verdict: False  A Secret Service spokesperson confirmed that the claim is false via email. Fact Check: Before the start of the Trump rally last weekend in which a man attempted to assassinate the former president, Secret Service agents identified the nearby roof the shooter used as...

CLAIM: J.D. Vance backs antisemitic “replacement theory,” votes against Israel, and won’t oppose antisemitism. VERDICT: FALSE. All of these are lies circulated by pro-Israel Democrats losing the battle within their own party. A group calling itself “Democratic Majority for Israel,” which is trying (and failing) to keep the Democratic Party pro-Israel, reacted to the nomination of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as former President Donald Trump’s running mate by casting him as an antisemite who won...

(NewsNation) — Monthly housing costs have skyrocketed in recent years. Now, homebuyers in the states that will decide the upcoming presidential election are paying almost double what they were four years ago, according to new Redfin data. The median monthly housing payment in battleground states has nearly doubled since the 2020 election, increasing 92% to an all-time high of $2,161.

We all want to live in a community where people are kind, friendly, helpful and welcoming. But sadly, many of us don't even know our neighbors at all much less feel that supportive sense of community where we live. Perhaps that's why Kelly McDuff's exchanges with her elderly neighbor in her new neighborhood are giving people hope. McDuff shared a video with the text, "We just moved into a house and my 98-year-old neighbor just dropped off a cake to welcome us to the neighborhood." In the video, McDuff grins and then shows the man crossing the street through her window, adding "He's lived here for 52 years and 'hopes we love it as much as he has.'" The 11-second video has been been viewed over 15 million times on TikTok. But that's not even the whole story. McDuff decided to reciprocate and bake the gentleman a lemon pie, excited to get to know him better. She encouraged everyone who liked the original video and thought it was cool to go and meet their neighbors—"go knock on their door and bake them some cookies, everybody likes cookies." She added that she wasn't sure what prompted her to make lemon pie, but she hoped he liked it. Then she shared how he reacted when she took the pie to his house. See on Instagram "Bless you, sweetheart! I love lemon pie," he said. "You didn't have to do that, but I'm just delighted you did." McDuff wisely brought her neighbor a piece of paper with her family's names and numbers on it—just in case—and so began the building of a community everyone yearns for. As one person in the comments put it, "This is how I thought adulthood would be as a child." The videos prompted other people to share their own celebration of community-building in the comments, and it's a hopeful reminder that sometimes it's as simple as taking the first step to reach out. "We (early 30’s) moved to New Zealand, and quickly learned our 80 year old neighbour had just lost his wife to cancer. We made him banana muffins and dropped them off on his doorstep, which started a beautiful friendship. Countless dinners, laughs, and solving the world’s problems over good cheese, chocolate and wine. He became (and still is) one of our closest friends. We’ve moved back to Canada now, and we still FaceTime with him regularly… apart, but still sharing laughs and solving the world’s problems over good cheese, chocolate, and wine. ❤️" "We had a very similar experience. We moved into our home and our 80+ year old neighbor brought over a homemade apple pie to welcome us to the neighborhood. She said they raised their 2 boys and twin grandsons in their house and were excited to see our 2 mos old son. We’ve been close ever since. It’s been 17 years. ?""A few years ago we lived next to a sweet old guy named Gus. He came over to introduce himself when we moved in and after that would come over to chat once in a while. We discovered in our conversations he was a Saxophonist and had played all the clubs in Vegas, even playing with Sinatra and hanging out with the rat pack for a little while! He said this as calmly as you please. He referred to Sinatra as old Franky and Dean Martin as Deano. You would never know this mild mannered, sweet guy had lived a wild life! He passed away suddenly from pneumonia but I still think about Gus and am thankful for his friendship.""Love this!!! As a kid, my 70+ year old neighbor would sit on her porch with her brother and dog. I would go sit with them sometimes, go to the store for her and just relax. I eventually asked her to be my God mother and she agreed. She died when I was in the 7th grade but the love she poured in me never left my soul. Thanks for everything ❤️Ms. Bea.""So I'm a neighbor wrangler. Every neighborhood I've lived in I've been the person to introduce myself and invite them over for a drink or if we're having an event, invite them too. I love it because neighbors who've never spoken or just did the garbage-day wave, suddenly start helping each other and become a community. Being a good neighbor is so underestimated.""My mom bakes banana bread and has my dad deliver it every time someone new moves to the neighborhood. They’re almost 80. Very sweet. ?""This has inspired me to go knock on my 90 year old neighbors door."Imagine if we all reached out to our neighbors, new or established, young or old, with such warm and thoughtful gestures of goodwill. Bringing someone cake or pie or cookies certainly won't solve all of humanity's problems, but it does start to build bonds and create connected communities where everyone feels welcome and valued.

Tony Trapani and his wife were married for 50 years despite the heartache of being unable to have children. "She wanted children,” Trapani told Fox 17. "She couldn't have any. She tried and tried." Even though they endured the pain of infertility, Tony's love for his wife never wavered and he cherished every moment they spent together.After his wife passed away when Tony was 81 years old, he undertook the heartbreaking task of sorting out all of her belongings. That’s when he stumbled upon a carefully concealed letter in a filing cabinet hidden for over half a century. The letter was addressed to Tony and dated March 1959, but this was the first time he had seen it. His wife must have opened it, read it and hid it from him. The letter came from Shirley Childress, a woman Tony had once been close with before his marriage. She reached out, reminiscing about their past and revealing a secret that would change Tony's world forever."Dear Tony, I bet you are surprised to hear from me after so many years. I was just thinking about you tonight like so many other nights. But I thought I would write you and find out how you are," the letter reads. "Tony, please don't be angry or surprised to hear this. I have a little boy. He is five-years- old now - grey eyes and beautiful black hair. What I am trying to say Tony is he is your son.""Please, Tony if you can find it in your heart to forgive me, please come and see him," Shirley wrote in the letter. "Every day he asks me where is his daddy and believe me Tony I can't even answer him anymore. If would be forever grateful to you if you would just see him. ... I'll close now hoping and praying you will answer. P.S. His name is Samuel Duane."Now, Tony faced the fact that he had a son that would be around 60 years old and he set out to find him. For over a year, Trapani’s sister tried to track down the mysterious Samuel Duane Childress, until she finally contacted his wife, Donna.Tony and Samuel met in January 2015 and he felt like a new dad. After meeting his father, Samuel said his mother told him she sent the letter, but Tony never responded. "Why my wife didn't tell me," said Trapani. "I don't know. She wanted children. She couldn't have any. She tried and tried.""I always asked my mom, I said, 'Well what does he look like?'' Samuel said. "She said, 'Well, go look in the mirror." Tony Trapani, 81, meets his son for the first time after finding a hidden letter from 1959. https://t.co/iNSKVMjnjv — (@) The two met and caught up on a lifetime of memories with the understanding that they could never change the past. "Just to know him now is so important to me. It's going to fill that void," Samuel said. But just to be sure, Tony took a paternity test to ensure they were father and son.The test came back negative, revealing that Tony was not the father. The news upset Tony and Samuel, but they still had a unique bond. They shared a relationship with Samuel’s mother and both have been on an incredibly wild ride after Tony found the mysterious letter.“They're keeping that bond,” Donna said. “That paper doesn't mean anything to him. That bond has been made—and we're going to move on from here.”This article originally appeared on 2.23.24