The United States Men’s National Team takes on Turkey Thursday night in its final group stage game of the 2026 World Cup. While America has clinched its spot in the round of 32, there are still many things to look for as the red, white, and blue takes the field.
The result on Thursday won&#8217;t affect potential future opponents for the United States, but the match is still very important. Between staying perfect, resting starters, and preventing more yellow cards, manager Mauricio Pochettino has important duties in the final game before the knockout round begins.
The United States will attempt to accomplish a feat it has never done in its World Cup history: win all three games of a group stage. America will attempt to do so against a hungry Turkey roster that has not met expectations.
Turkey is widely regarded as one of the more disappointing teams of this year’s World Cup. Heading into the tournament, FIFA ranked the country as the 22nd best national team in the world, a ranking that put it only five spots behind the United States, and above the other Group D competitors Australia and Paraguay. 
After losing their first two group games, Turkey was eliminated from a potential knockout round appearance. Despite creating 62 shots in the first two games, Turkey has been held scoreless. 
While dominating the first two games, the roster that starts tonight for the United States will not be the same as the previous victories, making the group stage sweep even harder against a team that wants to end on a high note.
Pochettino will test the depth of his roster in tonight’s game as he works around yellow cards and rest for his stars.
After being injured against Paraguay, star forward Christian Pulisic did not play in the 2-0 Group D-clinching win against Australia. While it is reported that he is healthy and conditioned enough to start, Pochettino is expected to have him come off the bench late if he were to see playing time.
Pochettino also confirmed that the team&#8217;s leading goal scorer Folarin Balogun, along with Tyler Adams, Chris Richards, and Antonee Robinson, will not play against Turkey due to all of them having a yellow card. If any of the players were to receive another yellow, they would be suspended from America’s first knockout stage game. Assessed yellow cards reset after the group stages.
Coming away with a win will continue the momentum the United States needs to advance past the round of 16 for the first time since 2002.

USA v Australia: Group D – FIFA World Cup 2026

America Takes The Field For The Last Time In The Group Stages — Here’s What To Watch For

Soccer

Turkey

U.S.

World Cup

The following is an edited transcript excerpt from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mks-ep-1945-sub?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">The Michael Knowles Show</a>.
* * *
A huge proportion of babies born in the United States are now born to foreign nationals who are cheating the immigration system. 
Can we acknowledge this whole “anchor baby” thing is a problem? I should hope so but I’m not totally sure that we can.
The whole concept of birthright citizenship comes from the British. The idea stems from a distinction between jus soli — the right-of-the-soil — and jus sanguinis — the right-of-blood. The notion that you get your citizenship from the blood of your parents versus receiving citizenship because you were born on certain soil.
Well, we get the idea from English common law. And guess what? The English — the Brits — have not had jus soli, right-of-the-soil birthright citizenship, since 1983. So even they recognized there’s a problem.
Can we too recognize that there’s a problem here?
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/mks-ep-1945-sub?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-1054531 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1024x171.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-768x128.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1-1536x256.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/MK-watch-now-1.jpg 1800w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Western Lensman gives some very good background on this topic on X, posting a clip about pregnant mothers from Turkey giving birth in the United States. Here&#8217;s the clip:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
2020. Turkish anchor baby ring found operating in Long Island, NY — mothers got taxpayer funded healthcare.
This is insane:
&#8220;Prosecutors say more than 100 pregnant women from Turkey came here to give birth, so their children were instantly granted U.S. citizenship.&#8221;… <a href="https://t.co/mjxyihjeO2">https://t.co/mjxyihjeO2</a> <a href="https://t.co/QcWl50rEXd">pic.twitter.com/QcWl50rEXd</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/2039716413225550306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: WesternLensman/X.com
There are “anchor baby” operations — what amount to birth tourism schemes — that have been operating in this country for years. Prosecutors described a case on Long Island where more than 100 pregnant women from Turkey came to the U.S. to give birth so their children would automatically receive U.S. citizenship.
<blockquote>The defendants fraudulently facilitated the births in the United States of approximately 119 Turkish children. And those children now hold birthright U.S. citizenship.</blockquote>
Officials alleged the scheme was openly advertised abroad — essentially marketing the idea: if you want your child to be born in the United States and become an American citizen, this is how you do it.
This is a business. This is an industry.
You see versions of this in other countries too — there were similar cases involving Chinese birth tourism operations in the past.
So, again I ask, can we acknowledge that this is a problem?
Yes.
Where does the problem derive from? It derives from what is now an outmoded conception from English common law — so much so that the English themselves moved away from it — and from interpretations of the 14th Amendment that have been expanded far beyond what some argue was originally intended.
So what’s the solution?
The solution, very obviously, would be to place limits on how birthright citizenship is applied. You don’t necessarily have to eliminate it entirely — you could define it more narrowly. Some argue that even within the text of the 14th Amendment there are grounds for interpretation about who qualifies, since the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has historically been debated.
That’s the argument.
And the broader point is this: if a country cannot define who is and is not a citizen, then it raises serious questions about sovereignty and governance.
That’s why this debate keeps coming up.

New parents watching babies in hospital nursery

‘Anchor Baby’ Schemes Are Thriving And The System Making It Possible Is Still Untouched

14th Amendment

babies

birthright citizenship

citizenship

Great Britain

Michael Knowles

Pregnancy

Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, are accused of attempting to throw homemade bombs into a crowd of people and police officers outside Gracie Mansion in New York City on Saturday.
Officers quickly arrested the duo after one of the bombs was thrown. By Saturday evening, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch addressed the public, confirming that the devices were “a bit smaller than a football, [appeared] to be a jar wrapped in black tape, importantly with nuts, bolts, and screws along with a hobby fuse that could be lit.”
The devices — in Balat’s own words — were intended “to carry out an attack bigger than the Boston Marathon,” which Balat noted caused “only three deaths.” From Pennsylvania, Balat and Kayumi reportedly traveled to New York City to carry out their attack. After Balat was arrested on Saturday, authorities located a car registered to Balat’s family member and found footage of the vehicle crossing the George Washington Bridge into New York City at 11:36 a.m. on Sunday.
Balat and Kayumi lived <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/alleged-isis-inspired-suburban-terrorists-lived-10-miles-apart-were-strangers-before-nyc-attack-lawyer">ten miles</a> from each other in Pennsylvania. Balat is enrolled at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Kayumi graduated from Council Rock High School in 2024. Balat’s lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, claimed to reporters that the men did not know each other prior to the attack: “They’re strangers, as far as I know.” He added that they are in different age groups.
An official from Neshaminy High School shared with The Daily Wire said Balat was enrolled in the district’s virtual academy and had not attended in-person classes since September. Essmidi said, “He’s finishing school remotely because he has only like three classes left to do.”
When arrested, both Balat and Kayumi referred to ISIS in recorded post-arrest statements. Balat pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State on a piece of paper at the police detention center, and Kayumi said he was affiliated with ISIS and watched ISIS propaganda on his phone.
Authorities have since searched Balat and Kayumi’s devices, as well as their homes. Balat lived in Langhorne in a home estimated to be worth <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-suspected-nyc-terrorist-flashes-isis-salute-three-times?author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WATCH%3A+Suspected+NYC+Terrorist+Flashes+ISIS+Salute+Three+Times">$653,000,</a> and Kayumi lived in a home worth <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-suspected-nyc-terrorist-flashes-isis-salute-three-times?author=Brecca+Stoll&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WATCH%3A+Suspected+NYC+Terrorist+Flashes+ISIS+Salute+Three+Times">$2.25 million</a>. It is unclear whether Kayumi continued to live in that home after he graduated from Council Rock.
The FBI also searched a storage facility in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, on South Flowers Mill Road. The FBI said it was conducting a court-authorized search in connection with Balat and Kayumi’s terrorism case.
Kayumi’s parents were <a href="https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/news/local/2026/03/09/are-terror-suspects-emir-balat-and-ibrahim-kayumi-us-citizens-bucks-county-gracie-mansion-protest/89069831007/">originally from</a> Afghanistan and became naturalized citizens in 2004 and 2009.
Both Balat and Kayumi <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-investigation-terrorism-explosive-device-new-york-city-mayor-mamdani-gracie-mansion/">traveled internationally</a> in the last two years. Balat left the United States for about four months, traveling to Istanbul, Turkey, from May 6, 2025, to August 26, 2025. In January of this year, Balat left the country, again traveling to Turkey. Like Balat, Kayumi also went to Istanbul, but in July and August of 2024. He also traveled to Saudi Arabia in March of that year.

US-POLITICS-DEMONSTRATION

Everything We Know About The Suspected NYC Terrorists

New York City

Pennsylvania

Terrorism

Suspected terrorist Emir Balat flashed an ISIS salute three times while being escorted in handcuffs from a police precinct in New York on Monday.
Balat first made the gesture as he emerged from a tunnel outside the precinct where he had been held after being arrested on Saturday. A police officer attempted to cover his hand with a manila folder, but Balat raised his hand above the folder and repeated the gesture. He briefly lowered his hand before raising it a third time as he was placed into a vehicle.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The 18-year-old was seen holding up his right index finger — a universal salute for the terror group — and grinning at the press while being led by a cop and an FBI agent. Read more at the link in our bio. <a href="https://t.co/9bg83J1HQ1">pic.twitter.com/9bg83J1HQ1</a>
— New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/2031033866236960770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2026</a></blockquote>
ISIS began using the gesture, a raised index finger accompanied by a slight shaking motion, in 2014. The gesture refers to Tawhid, the Islamic belief in the oneness of God.
When taken into custody on Saturday, Balat pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. He wrote, &#8220;All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds. I pledge my allegiance to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar,&#8221; on a sheet of paper at the police precinct. Police body cam footage showed Balat saying, &#8220;this isn&#8217;t a religion that just stands when people talk about the blessed name of the prophet &#8230; We take action! We take action!&#8221; and &#8220;if I didn&#8217;t do it someone else will come and do it.&#8221;
A federal complaint released Monday adds that Balat stated he wanted to carry out an attack bigger than the Boston Marathon bombing, which Balat said caused &#8220;only three deaths.&#8221;
Eighteen-year-old Balat was arrested Saturday along with 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi after an explosive device was thrown into a crowd of protesters and police officers. Balat and Kayumi are no longer being held by the NYPD and will instead be held on federal charges pending further court proceedings.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said, “Once again, we were fortunate that the devices used this weekend did not cause the kind of harm that they were certainly capable of causing, but luck is never a strategy.” Tisch added that if the weapons had detonated, they could have caused serious injury or death.
Balat and Kayumi traveled from Pennsylvania to New York City on Saturday morning. Both reportedly grew up in affluent neighborhoods. Balat’s home in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, is estimated to be worth $653,000, while Kayumi’s home is valued at approximately $2.25 million. Balat&#8217;s parents were born in Turkey, and Kayumi&#8217;s are from Afghanistan, <a href="https://x.com/annaschecter/status/2030817903746965817">according to</a> federal officials.

Right-Wing Activists Protest Against New York Mayor Mamdani Outside Gracie Mansion

WATCH: Suspected NYC Terrorist Flashes ISIS Salute Three Times

Afghanistan

Radical Islamic Terror

Iran’s widening war nearly reached NATO’s doorstep after a ballistic missile fired toward Turkey was intercepted before entering Turkish airspace.
During a Pentagon briefing early Wednesday morning, Mary Margaret Olohan, White House correspondent for The Daily Wire, asked War Secretary Pete Hegseth whether the incident could trigger NATO’s collective defense clause known as Article 5.
Hegseth acknowledged the engagement but suggested the alliance does not currently see the incident as meeting the threshold for invoking NATO’s mutual defense provision.
“I&#8217;ll have to get back to you on exactly what the intercept looked like,” Hegseth said. “We&#8217;re aware about that particular engagement. Although, no sense that it would trigger anything like Article 5.”
Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all members of the alliance, potentially triggering a collective military response.
According to regional reports, the Iranian missile traveled across Iraqi and Syrian territory before being intercepted over the Eastern Mediterranean by NATO air defense systems. Debris from the intercept reportedly fell into Turkey’s Hatay province near the Syrian border.
Turkey is a NATO member, making the strike particularly sensitive as the United States and Israel continue their joint military campaign against Iran known as Operation Epic Fury.
Turkey’s Defense Ministry said it reserves the right to respond to what it described as a hostile act.
Despite the rising tensions, Turkey has maintained a complicated relationship with Iran for years.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has cultivated close diplomatic ties with Tehran while also positioning himself as a defender of Turkish sovereignty in the region. Analysts have long noted that Ankara views the stability of Iran as strategically important, particularly to avoid a refugee crisis along their shared border and to prevent Kurdish militant groups from exploiting instability in the region.
Turkey also relies on Iran for roughly 10% of its natural gas imports and maintains key trade routes with the country.
At the same time, Erdoğan has been sharply critical of Israel during the broader conflict.
He has repeatedly condemned United States and Israeli strikes on Iran as a violation of international law and described the widening regional conflict as a “ring of fire.”
Erdoğan has also been one of Israel’s most vocal critics internationally, frequently accusing the Israeli government of war crimes and refusing to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization, instead describing the group as “liberation fighters.”

Erdogan meets Iran’s religious leader Khamenei

Iran Fires Missile Toward NATO Ally — Pentagon Asked If Article 5 Could Be Triggered

Donald Trump

Iran

NATO

Operation Epic Fury

What really happened on the first Thanksgiving? Why do we eat turkey? How long has football been associated with Thanksgiving? Are Americans still honoring the spirit of the holiday? 
The Daily Wire&#8217;s Morning Wire interviewed historian Melanie Kirkpatrick to get to the bottom of these questions – and more. 
According to Kirkpatrick, author of “Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience,” Thanksgiving goes back even before the Pilgrims. 
“Many of the European explorers who came to this continent called days of thanksgiving, and of course, the original thanksgivings were called by Native American populations,” Kirkpatrick explained.
“The pilgrims, after their first harvest, they gathered their people together and called a day of thanksgiving,” she explained. “And I&#8217;ll point out that it&#8217;s very wonderful when you consider that half of the pilgrims had died between the arrival of the pilgrims and the day of thanksgiving. But nonetheless, they gave thanks for the blessings of the harvest and for being together. And then, of course, Native Americans joined them.”
“There were about 90 Native Americans who joined them, and they celebrated for three days,” Kirkpatrick said. “We know all of that because thanks to two articles, two commentaries by two of the pilgrims.”
However, Kirkpatrick said, “a lot of the other stuff we traditionally associate with the pilgrims is not necessarily true.”
“There&#8217;s a famous painting of the first Thanksgiving, showing the pilgrims having a meal outside. That&#8217;s true,” she said. “But if you look at the other items in the painting, not so true. For example, the pilgrims are all dressed in dark colors. And in truth, they wore bright colors, which goes against what we all learned in kindergarten about how the pilgrims dressed.”
“Similarly, the Native Americans who were there were depicted as wearing elaborate headdresses, like you&#8217;d see in the Plains Indians. But that wasn&#8217;t true either,” she said. “They wore maybe one or two feathers.”
<h3>Did they really eat turkey at the first Thanksgiving?</h3>
Kirkpatrick says we don’t know what exactly was eaten. However, one of the pilgrims mentions “the great store of wild turkey that was available.”
“So they probably had turkey,” she said, adding that they had venison, too. 
“We know they had venison because the Indians brought as a gift a bunch of deer that they had killed,” Kirkpatrick said. “That was a standard feature of Thanksgiving Day up through &#8230; parts of the 19th century actually.”
Turkey became common on Thanksgiving as there were so many wild turkeys in New England, the author said. 
“I just saw a flock of turkeys out my window the other day – I live in Connecticut. So they were easy to find,” she said. “Also, they were, by the end of the 18th, early 19th century, they were domesticated, so they were special.”
Kirkpatrick added, though, that in New England in the 19th century, the central feature of the Thanksgiving Day meal was actually chicken pot pie.
“I know people in New England whose families still have that tradition of having chicken pot pie around the time of the holiday – not necessarily on Thanksgiving Day,” she said. “And as the holidays spread out west, American settlers brought their own food traditions with them. So you find beef being eaten on Thanksgiving instead of turkey, and as settlers from other places came to this country, they brought their own traditions with them, like lasagna and stir fries, curries. So the meal is still evolving.”
<h3>What do we know about the origins of the official Thanksgiving holiday? </h3>
“The early settlers in New England fixed the dates of their thanksgivings by community or by church,” Kirkpatrick said. “And then the governor of the New England colony would name a date.” 
The celebrations were very “ad hoc,” she said. But this all changed when the “Mother of Thanksgiving” stepped in to make the holiday official. 
“Along came Sarah Josepha Hale, who was the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Magazine, the most popular and most widely read magazine of the early part of the 19th century,” Kirkpatrick said. “She was from New Hampshire, and she adored the thanksgiving holiday, and she decided to try to make it national. She saw it as part of American culture, part of our heritage, and she tried to persuade presidents of the United States to name a Thanksgiving Day.”
“Hale used the power of her magazine to write about Thanksgiving and encourage governors to coordinate the date so that they would have the same date,” she continued. “Finally, as the Civil War was approaching, she intensified her campaign. And in 1863, she wrote to Lincoln asking him to name a date when the whole country could celebrate. He did, and in 1863 was the first date that at least part of the country, the North, the Union, celebrated on one day.”
“Every president since Lincoln has named a day, an official date of Thanksgiving,” the historian explained. “Interestingly, it wasn&#8217;t until 1941 that Thanksgiving became official. Congress passed a resolution naming the fourth Thursday of November the date of Thanksgiving, and President Franklin Roosevelt signed it into law.” 
<h3>Thanksgiving And Football </h3>
Relatively soon after football developed in the United States, it was connected to Thanksgiving. 
The tradition of tying football with Thanksgiving started to grow around the 1870s, Kirkpatrick said. “The first football games took place in the late 1860s between Rutgers and Princeton,” she said. “And then there was a college championship game that was played in New York City, and New Yorkers really got into it, and it was played on Thanksgiving Day. So that tradition in New York sets the scene, sets the trend, and other cities followed suit. And then high schools and community groups would have it by the 1890s.”
“There was a tradition of having games on Thanksgiving morning, and the guys would go off to the games and the women would stay home and make dinner, and everybody would reconvene in the afternoon and celebrate Thanksgiving,” she said. 
<h3>How Thanksgiving has evolved </h3>
Discussing the evolution of Thanksgiving, Kirkpatrick said the “value has shifted somewhat,” but people still associate the holiday with charity and family and friends. 
“It&#8217;s not as religious a holiday as it used to be,” she explained. “For the first couple of hundred years, people went to church on Thanksgiving morning, too, before they went to football. But we don&#8217;t see that as much. It&#8217;s still religious in the sense that if a family is going to say grace before a meal, it&#8217;ll be on Thanksgiving.”
“But the values of generosity to the poor, for example, have long been associated with Thanksgiving,” she said. “The earliest example I found of that was, I think, 1624. And today, people participate in helping, making sure that the military gets a good Thanksgiving dinner, and prisoners and people who have a hard time affording the meal.”
“I think maybe the saddest image in American culture is somebody who has no place to go on Thanksgiving Day,” Kirkpatrick added. “It&#8217;s a day that&#8217;s associated with family and friendship, as well as food.”

Man carving roasted turkey at traditional Christmas table

A Historian Explains The History And Traditions Of Thanksgiving

The History And Traditions Of Thanksgiving, Explained By A Historian

America

Football

new england

Pilgrims

Thanksgiving

Trump/Armenia

A Week In Armenia: Hope Emerges After Trump’s Major Steps Toward Peace

Armenia

Armenians

Christianity

Islam

A group of Arab states on Monday publicly backed President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza and create a pathway for a Palestinian state.
The governments of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt released a joint statement on Monday backing the plan after Trump rolled it out in a White House event alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The joint statement of the Arab states was signed by the foreign minister of each.
The Arab states “welcome President Donald J Trump&#8217;s leadership and his sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza, and assert their confidence in his ability to find a path to peace,” the joint statement said.
“The ministers welcome the announcement by President Trump regarding his proposal to end the war, rebuild Gaza, prevent the displacement of the Palestinian people and advance a comprehensive peace, as well as his announcement that he will not allow the annexation of the West Bank,” the statement continued.
“The ministers affirm their readiness to engage positively and constructively with the United States and the parties toward finalizing the agreement and ensuring its implementation, in a manner that ensures peace, security, and stability for the peoples of the region,” it said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Joint Statement by the Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Qatar, and Egypt. <a href="https://t.co/XDqgHxNkGd">pic.twitter.com/XDqgHxNkGd</a>
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) <a href="https://twitter.com/KSAmofaEN/status/1972766033623814282?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 29, 2025</a></blockquote>
Trump announced the plan on Monday, celebrating “a historic day for peace.” The president said that, in addition to providing a pathway to peace between Israel and Gaza and laying the groundwork for a Palestinian state, the framework could create “eternal peace in the Middle East.”
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The wide support for the agreement among Arab states places additional pressure on Hamas to agree to the deal. Under the terms of the agreement, the terror group, and others like it, would be demilitarized, dismantled, and blocked from having administrative control over the Gaza Strip.
“If Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible – they’re the only one left, everyone else has accepted it – but I have a feeling we’re going to have a positive answer. But if not, you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you have to do,” said Trump.
Netanyahu echoed Trump’s threat in remarks following the U.S. president.
“If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President, or if they supposedly accept it, and then, basically, do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way, or it can be done the hard way. But it will be done,” the prime minister said.

Donald Trump, Mohammed bin Salman

Arab States Line Up Behind Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan

Egypt

Global Politics

Indonesia

Jordan

Pakistan

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

World

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. could lift sanctions on Turkey and allow it to buy U.S. F-35 jets as he kicked off talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, but said he wanted Ankara to stop purchases of Russian oil.
Erdogan&#8217;s first visit to the White House in about six years started off with a warm welcome from Trump. Seated side by side in the Oval Office, Trump called Erdogan a &#8220;very tough man&#8221; and said they remained &#8220;friends&#8221; while his predecessor Joe Biden was in office.
Ankara is keen to leverage the friendly personal relationship to further national interests and benefit from a U.S. administration eager to make deals in return for big-ticket arms and trade agreements.
Still, Trump pressed Erdogan to cut off oil purchases from Russia, as he tries to put pressure on Russia&#8217;s sources for funding its war in Ukraine. Turkey, Hungary, and Slovakia are the main European purchasers of Russian oil.
&#8220;I&#8217;d like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine,&#8221; Trump said of Erdogan.
Asked whether he was willing to make a deal to sell F-35s to Turkey, Trump told reporters, &#8220;I think he&#8217;ll be successful in buying the things that he wants to buy. &#8220;Trump also said he could lift sanctions against Turkey &#8220;very soon,&#8221; and that &#8220;if we have a good meeting, almost immediately.&#8221;
The Biden administration had kept Turkey at arm&#8217;s length partly over what it saw as the fellow NATO member&#8217;s close ties with Russia. Under Trump, who has closer personal ties with Erdogan, Ankara is hoping for a better relationship.
Trump and Erdogan had a checkered relationship during the Republican president&#8217;s first term. But since his return to the White House, their interests have aligned on Syria &#8211; source of the biggest bilateral strain in the past &#8211; where the U.S. and Turkey now both strongly back the central government.
The mood shift has renewed Turkish hopes that Trump and Erdogan, who have exchanged mutual praise, can find a way around U.S. sanctions imposed by Trump himself in 2020 over Turkey&#8217;s acquisition of Russian S-400 missile defenses.
That, in turn, could pave the way for Ankara to buy Lockheed Martin&#8217;s advanced F-35 fighter jets, for which it was both a buyer and manufacturer until it was barred over the S-400s.
Erdogan has said the defense industry, including the topic of F-35s and ongoing negotiations over 40 F-16 jets Ankara also wants, would be a focus of the meeting, along with regional wars, energy, and trade.
Turkey, NATO&#8217;s second-largest army, wants to ramp up air power to counter what it sees as growing threats in the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea, where it neighbours Russia and Ukraine.
Erdogan also told reporters that he was &#8220;ready to do whatever is needed from us&#8221; to reopen an Orthodox Christian seminary that was shut by the Turkish state in 1971 and has remained a source of contention with Greece and the European Union ever since.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians worldwide based in Istanbul, also met with Trump in Washington this month and was quoted as saying he hopes the theological school on Heybeliada Island can accept students next year.
Turkey, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, has in the past resisted reopening the seminary near Istanbul despite years of pressure from the European Union, which it aspires to join.
Erdogan said he would discuss the issue with Bartholomew when he returns to Turkey.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara, Jonathan Spicer and Daren Butler in Istanbul, and Mike Stone in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk and Deepa Babington)

Turkey’s President Erdogan visits White House, in Washington

Trump Presses Erdogan To Stop Buying Russian Oil, May Lift Sanctions On Turkey

F-35

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Russia

White House

In a move unsurprising given Turkey’s harshly anti-Israel Islamist government, the country’s foreign minister announced Friday that Turkey has cut commercial ties with Israel—barring Israeli vessels from its ports, blocking Turkish ships from Israeli ports, and restricting Israeli planes from entering Turkish airspace.
“We have totally cut our trade with Israel, we have closed off our ports to Israeli ships and we are not allowing Turkish vessels to go to Israel’s ports,” Hakan Fidan <a href="applewebdata://E83BCD95-A919-40A1-B24F-AA45CF3D369A/v">stated</a>. “We are not allowing container ships carrying weapons and ammunition to Israel to enter our ports, and airplanes to go into our airspace.”
Before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power in 2014, Turkey and Israel had strong strategic ties. That soured quickly, although a brief reconciliation occurred in 2016. Erdogan threatened to break relations again in 2017 after the U.S. recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Diplomatic ties were restored in August 2022, but only 16 days after the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of more than 1200 Israelis, Erdogan stated, “Hamas is not a terrorist organization … [but rather] a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people.”
“Turkey’s antipathy toward Israel and its affinity for Hamas is now so well established that diplomats accept it as fact. The open romance between the NATO member and the terror group began in 2006,” FDD reported. Erdogan has <a href="https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/03/28/hamas-and-turkey-partners-in-terror/">stated,</a> “I don’t see Hamas as a terror organization. Hamas is a political party.”
Erdogan has accused Israel of “genocide” and supported South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. In March of this year, Erdogan delivered a speech in which he <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2025/03/30/turkish-president-calls-for-israels-destruction-and-ruin/">ranted,</a> “May Allah bring destruction and ruin upon Zionist Israel.”
In September 2024, at the United Nations, Erdogan likened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler, <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article253687116/Erdogan-vergleicht-Netanjahu-erneut-mit-Hitler-So-wie-vor-70-Jahren.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com">saying,</a> “Just as Hitler was stopped 70 years ago … so must Netanyahu and his murder gang be stopped.” In June 2025, he escalated his rhetoric, <a href="https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2025/06/18/erdogan-acusa-a-netanyahu-de-haber-superado-a-hitler-por-la-masacre-de-palestinos-en-gaza-cadena-ser/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">saying</a>, “Netanyahu has surpassed Hitler in terms of genocide,” an insane declaration. Netanyahu <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67861266">fired back</a>, “Erdogan, who commits genocide against the Kurds, who holds a world record for imprisoning journalists who oppose his rule, is the last person who can preach morality to us.”
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In August 2024, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz bashed Erdogan after he said the U.S. and Western countries were “taken hostage by the Zionists in Israel.”
“Erdogan, the ones taken hostage are the citizens of Turkey, trapped in your dictatorship,” Katz wrote on X. “You blocked Instagram for 57 million users in your country but left access to your own Instagram account. No matter how many attacks are made against me, I will continue to expose the truth to the people of Turkey and the world. A leader who embraces Hamas, oppresses his people, and acts like a dictator is a dictator.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The anti-Semitic dictator <a href="https://twitter.com/RTErdogan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RTErdogan</a> attacked the US and Western countries yesterday, saying they were &#8220;taken hostage by the Zionists in Israel.&#8221;
Erdoğan, the ones taken hostage are the citizens of Turkey, trapped in your dictatorship. You blocked Instagram for 57 million users… <a href="https://t.co/EOgELcp2G4">pic.twitter.com/EOgELcp2G4</a>
— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) <a href="https://twitter.com/Israel_katz/status/1820745033516998797?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Erdoğan Holds Press Conference After Cabinet Meeting

No Surprise: Anti-Israel Turkish Regime Cuts Commercial Ties With Jewish State

Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel

Politics

Later this month, I will travel to Armenia as part of a delegation of American Christian leaders. By historical consensus, Armenia is the world’s first Christian nation, having adopted Christianity in AD 301, more than a decade before Constantine&#8217;s Edict of Milan that granted religious liberty to Christians and others across the realm.
Over the centuries, Armenia has preserved its Christian faith through hostile enemy invasions, forced conversions, and even genocide. Despite being surrounded by autocratic regimes and militant ideologies that directly contest its survival, it has maintained its original faith.
In 2023, the world witnessed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/they-hate-us-so-much-worlds-oldest-christian-nation-faces-ethnic-cleansing-as-emboldened-azerbaijan-wages-a-silent-war">forced displacement</a> of over 120,000 Christian Armenians from their ancestral homeland of Artsakh (widely known as Nagorno-Karabakh), which had long been a self-governing democratic entity within the international borders of Azerbaijan.
The removal of these Christians was the result of a brutal blockade, military assault, and systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing by despotic Azerbaijan, backed by authoritarian Turkey. Sadly, the world’s response to this attack on freedom, religious liberty, self-government, and the right of political self-determination was largely silence.
As Scripture reminds us, “If one member suffers, all suffer together” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Corinthians%2012%3A26">(1 Corinthians 12:26</a>). Armenia’s suffering must be our concern, not only because of our shared faith but because Armenia’s fate determines whether ancient Christian civilizations will be allowed to survive in an increasingly hostile neighborhood.
Azerbaijan currently holds dozens of Armenian political prisoners, including former political and religious leaders and journalists. It has demolished centuries-old churches, bulldozed cemeteries, and attempted to erase every vestige of the region’s indigenous Christian heritage. What it cannot destroy is often defaced, and border communities in southern Armenia live in constant fear of violence.
Our trip is organized by <a href="https://www.savearmenia.us/">Save Armenia</a>, a U.S.-based coalition of Christian and Jewish leaders. We draw global attention to these current threats and offer meaningful solidarity to Christians and Jews living in a perilous region. In the aftermath of recent ethnic cleansings, Save Armenia has mobilized support to protect Armenia’s sovereignty, advocate for justice, and raise awareness among American faith communities and policymakers alike.
Our itinerary is both spiritual and strategic.
We will visit displaced families who have lost everything yet remain deeply rooted in faith, and we will hear the voices of a people who have suffered for their faith yet never abandoned it.
We will walk through villages near hostile frontiers, speak with the provincial governor, and meet with high-ranking officials from Armenia’s Foreign Ministry and Security Council.
We will stand in monasteries older than most nations, praying in the 9th-century monastery of Tatev, perched high above a gorge in Armenia’s south. And we will stand in the ancient 3rd-century monastery where Saint Gregory the Illuminator was once imprisoned, and where the story of Christian Armenia began.
We believe Christians everywhere have a moral responsibility to help their persecuted brethren. We speak up for persecuted Christians in the Middle East and Africa, and we must not ignore what is occurring in Armenia. Religious freedom cannot be a selective principle.
Armenia has had a rocky path since regaining its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is now a pluralistic and scrappy democracy striving for peace and justice under immense pressure.
It does not enjoy the protections of NATO, the backing of global oil wealth, or the security of a powerful military. What it does enjoy is a legacy of faith, a thirst for freedom, and a history that dates back to the earliest days of the Church. Armenia must continue to exist as a free nation.
We urge our fellow Christians to learn more about our brethren there and help raise awareness about its dangerous situation.
Inform your church, and pray for our brothers and sisters there.
Also, let the federal Congressmen and Senators from your state know what is happening in and to Armenia. Knowledge is power, and once they know, they can take effective action.
Specifically…
<ol>
<li>Let them know about the recent ethnic cleansings at the hands of Azerbaijan.</li>
<li>Urge them to seek the release of all Armenian political prisoners.</li>
<li>Likewise, urge the defense of Armenia’s Christian heritage — demand that Azerbaijan preserve intact, without desecration or destruction, the ancient Armenian cultural and religious sites it controls.</li>
<li>Insist on the preservation of Armenia’s borders against it neighbors who want to seize and control that land area.</li>
</ol>
Collectively, we must support the Trump Administration’s efforts to help Armenia, but we must also encourage our federal legislators to do the same. Urge their specific engagement on the above matters.
It’s easy to despair in today’s world, but Armenia offers a different lesson: that faith, even when bruised, can endure —that Christian identity, even when threatened, will inspire — and that moral solidarity can still change the course of history.
Let us not stand idly by when there is so much we can easily do to help our brethren.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/48949/sunday-special-ep-57-david-barton">David Barton</a> is the Founder of WallBuilders and the author of numerous best-selling books. 
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The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Why Christians Must Stand With Armenia

Christians

Persecution

President Donald Trump said Friday that he would like to set up a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin &#8220;as soon&#8221; as possible.
Trump made the comments in Abu Dhabi as he prepared to return home to the United States at the end of his Middle East tour. He had previously floated a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin in Turkey, but the Russian president refused to attend.
&#8220;They all said Putin was going and Zelensky was going. And I said, If I don&#8217;t go, I guarantee Putin is not going, and he didn&#8217;t go,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;And I understand that, but we&#8217;re going to get it we&#8217;re going to get it done. We&#8217;ve got to get it done. Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we&#8217;re going to get it done.&#8221;
While Ukrainian and Russian officials are meeting in Turkey on Friday, Trump said he believed he would have to meet with Putin to make real progress toward ending the war.
Trump said that he plans to meet Putin &#8220;as soon as we can get it set up,&#8221; noting that he had planned to meet with Putin and Zelensky after wrapping up his visit to the United Arab Emirates. He added that he wanted to go back to America to see his new grandson, whom his daughter, Tiffany, gave birth to on Thursday.
&#8220;I do want to see my beautiful grandson, a son, and we&#8217;ll be doing that, but I will, I will tell you that the world is a much safer place right now,&#8221; Trump told reporters. &#8220;And I think in two or three weeks we could have it be a much, much safer place. We&#8217;re going to handle a couple of situations that you have here. We have some very serious situations.”
Zelensky and Ukrainian negotiators are meeting in Istanbul with Putin&#8217;s representatives for talks supervised by Turkish Defense Minister Hakan Fidan. While it will be the first talks between the warring nations since 2022, American officials don&#8217;t expect much to come from the meeting.
&#8220;We don&#8217;t have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow. And frankly, at this point, I think it&#8217;s abundantly clear that the only way we&#8217;re going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin,&#8221; Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

U.S. President Donald Trump in Abu Dhabi

After Putin Blows Off Peace Talks, Trump Gives Timeline For Meeting With Russian Prez

Ukraine-Russia War

Vladimir Putin

Volodymyr Zelensky

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