Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave an extensive press conference following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the conclusion of U.S. participation in the 2026 UNGA.  The full video and transcript are below.

There’s little argument that Secretary Rubio is one of the most remarkable Secretary of States’ in our modern history.

[Transcript] – SECRETARY RUBIO:  Okay, go ahead.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, what were the U.S. demands with the Iranians yesterday, and was there any discussion of return to the MOU, or have the terms changed for the United States in terms —

SECRETARY RUBIO: Well, yesterday’s conversation was with some of the mediators involved in that process, and I don’t want to characterize it as one direction or another.  I think it’s a pretty clear understanding of what this – remember everything here, at its core, the number one issue – the President highlighted this yesterday in his speech before the world – Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.  Everything emanates from that.

We understand the straits is an issue.  The southern lane of the straits is open.  Every day more and more barrels of oil are flowing through there.  And they’re open, thanks to the efforts of the United States military that’s both defending shipping and has removed mines.  And that trend will continue.  Meanwhile, the only blockade in the Hormuz Straits is the one we’ve imposed on Iran because they keep firing on ships and they continue to do so as early as this morning.  There was another launch, so – on shipping.  So, we’ll continue to defend.  We’ll continue to hold the straits open.  So that’s an issue.

But the core issue here is that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.  We make that point in every interaction with them.  Beyond that, I would say that – I don’t want to characterize these meetings because these – if there’s going to be a deal with Iran, it’s not going to happen at a press conference.  It’s going to involve a lot of hard work over a period of time, and it will engage and involve mediators as well.

So as the President said, he’s open to a deal.  The President’s open, still to this moment, to making a deal with Iran that allows Iran to be what it should be, which is a great and prosperous country.  But if they continue to insist on the desire for a nuclear weapon, their support for proxies in the region that – their support of terrorism – they’re the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism – then we’re going to have big problems with them.  And the President has a number of options available to him, including the ones he’s already taken, which is to impose severe and growing economic costs.  But he also has some military options, upon which I won’t speculate.

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appears on CNBC to discuss the trade aspect of the U.S-China negotiations against the backdrop of the official state visit by Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.

USTR Greer notes the tariffs against China remain in place and extended for several months as the U.S. reviews Beijing compliance with pre-existing agreements.  This builds on what Greer previously said about ultimately the U.S. and China are in a managed situation, where the U.S. doesn’t put any focus on what China says, we are looking at what China does.

Stunningly, at 4:25 of the video CNBC pundit Kelly Evans chimes in with a weird talking point about the U.S-China trade deficit not changing. Ambassador Greer quickly corrects Ms Evans, noting her baseline is entirely false. The trade disparity between the U.S and China has reduced by 40% over the past year, in part because the U.S. is leveraging tariffs as enforcement mechanisms to previous purchase agreements.  WATCH:

In typical leftist fashion, Ms Kelly Evans says “if true” to the United States Trade Representative.  Who else, other than the USTR, would know the specifics of accuracy for the data Ms Evans is mis-citing.  Quite silly.

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After writing the lengthy outline about the problem faced by Joseph diGenova, a Reagan-era former U.S. attorney and longtime Trump ally who served as counselor to Attorney General Todd Blanche and exited over strategic differences {GO DEEP}, several people provided feedback, generally expressing understanding and agreement.

A few asked for suggestions.

Having looked at the challenges from every direction, and having a deep understanding of the complications within any prosecutorial effort on this highly complex ‘conspiracy’ case, I am going to outline my best advice.

This is how you arrange the case.

In any successful endeavor like this, you need the hook.  You need a central point of focus that brings the entire operation into a clearer view.  Stories like this are not told in a linear fashion; you need a central point of focus and then you build out the storyline from there.

So, what it that inflection?  What is that moment that establishes the point from which everything else falls into place?

First, look at the requirements.  The central event needs to encompass the foundational unlawful activity.  The event needs to be clearly unlawful in nature and highlight the mindset that existed within each of the participants.  The evidence must have a clear, distinct and actionable set of facts that can be directly proven beyond doubt.

The event needs to have been previously investigated, so that time is not wasted repeating a lengthy and exhaustive investigation around the fact pattern.  The event needs a specific set of witnesses, who cannot escape being truthful about the preexisting irrefutable facts. And the event needs to highlight a conspiracy by every participant who cannot deflect their participation by claiming they were unaware of the intent of every action within the process.

Those are the predicate requirements that establish the value of the central point of focus.  This is what makes a grand jury or criminal case jury have a consistent reference point.  If this fact pattern is demonstrably true, then that action or outcome is incontrovertibly self-evident.

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President Trump has drawn attention to this segment by Victor Davis Hanson outlining the status of the Canadian position thanks to Prime Minister Mark Carney.  Why? Because VDH is the type of American that Canadians actually listen to.

VDH apparently talks in the tones and constructs that appeal to Canadians, therefore his remarks on how Mark Carney is manipulating Canada hit more directly than when other pundits do it.  VDH has seen a remarkable uptick in the size of his audience ever since he started talking about Canada, because his new audience is almost exclusively Canadian.

Hanson speaks about the Canadian dynamic below.  It’s monotone, but the “elbows crew’ like it.  WATCH (prompted):

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Prime Minister Carney asks why Victor Davis Hanson is doing this to him.

I’m not a big fan of Canadians switching positions and suddenly wanting to accept trade terms.  CTH would prefer that we sever all ties with Canada, terminate the USMCA and watch them slowly spiral for a year or two.  Carney Inc deserves it.

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Promethean Action PAC’s Barbara Boyd gives her recap of President Trump’s visit to the United Nation’s General Assembly in New York.

“Boyd argues President Trump used his UN General Assembly speech to indict globalization and mass migration, contrasting his “nation state” vision with Brazil’s Lula da Silva and warning Brazil’s Oct. 4 election could shift Latin America’s direction. It highlights Trump’s focus on security in the Western Hemisphere through the Shield of America alliance targeting narco-terror groups and says media coverage instead fixates on desk bans for CNN, MSNBC and Politico.

The episode claims Trump is pursuing peace in Ukraine and Iran while “globalists” push escalation, citing European voices advocating Russia’s breakup and calls for war. It describes a three-hour US-Iran meeting after Trump threatened annihilation unless Iran negotiates, plus tightened sanctions and a blockade. Finally, it says Trump rejected AI “superintelligence” panic, predicting major productivity gains and a new industrial renaissance.”

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio talks to the assembled press pool following extensive conversations with various foreign ministers, including discussions today with Russian Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Questions to Rubio surrounded the Iran conflict, the status of Venezuela, the discussions between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine, the status of Cuba and beyond.  Secretary Rubio gives direct, honest and substantive responses to each of the regional questions asked.  Exceptional press conference. WATCH:

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Take heart, we only need to wait approximately 60-days until we see a major price decline in diesel and gasoline prices in the USA.  Once the midterm election is over, prices will begin their retreat with the finished collapse mid-January.

The non-pretending reality exists within a generally non-western perspective that current “market prices” are not driven by oil supplies, refining capacity or the other various justifications used by the speculators, traders and various regional spot-market control systems.  The prices are being controlled in order to influence political outcomes.

Once those political influence operations are concluded, the stakeholders in the market price approach will moderate their justifications accordingly, and prices will plummet.  Sound nuts?  Well, let me explain who agrees.

On my side of the argument is Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin, who does happen to operate the world’s largest gasoline station – at least, according to the professional republicans. Others on my side include Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salmon, Qatari Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Venezuelan interim President Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez.

Others who accept the reality of this position, albeit with various political limits to their ability to speak openly about such matters, include President Donald J Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Unfortunately for this aligned group they are stuck inside the largest western political system who controls global finance and world economic outcomes.

What all of these aforementioned names understand is that “market prices” are entirely detached from the archaic terminology behind supply and demand; a quaint concept that stopped applying years ago – but pretenses must be maintained or else the masses may find their pitchforks, see: DSA pitchfork suppliers.

A second subset of allies who unintentionally support this perspective, includes those who use the terms “sold at a discount” where “sold at a discount” in reality means sold outside the western market pricing approach.

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President Donald Trump’s Tuesday schedule in New York at the U.N. General Assembly:

NEW YORK CITY:

9:55 AM: President Trump delivers remarks to the United Nations General Assembly

10:40 AM: President Trump participates in a trilateral signing with the Prime Ministers of Denmark and Greenland

11:45 AM: President Trump holds a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain

12:30 PM: President Trump holds a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan

12:45 PM: The First Lady delivers remarks on expanding Fostering the Future Together

1:15 PM: President Trump holds a bilateral meeting with the President of Ukraine

2:15 PM: President Trump participates in a Shield of the Americas event

2:45 PM: President Trump holds a multilateral meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council

7:15 PM: President Trump participates in an UNGA leaders’ reception

7:40 PM: President Trump holds a pull-aside meeting with the Acting President of Venezuela

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joins CNBC ‘Squawk Box’ this morning to discuss his 12-hour meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.  Within the interview Bessent details the ‘U.S.-China AI Dialogue’, the calls for a slowdown in AI development and whether regulation is needed.

Secretary Bessent notes President Trump is not going to deliver liability immunity to AI frontier labs and existing legal frameworks within the U.S. will remain as protective pathways as development moves from AI labs into engineering outcomes.

This is the core of the issue. The investors that poured money into the AI labs, now support immunity from legal liability that doesn’t exist in any other sector other than Big Pharma. AI wants the same protection as Big Pharma, and President Trump is not going to allow the shift in responsibility from AI developers to government. WATCH:

Also below is the full debriefing from Secretary Bessent and USTR Jamieson Greer that followed the Sunday meeting between the U.S. and Chinese counterparts.

As CTH has noted, the pace of these critical economic developments is going to speed up over the next several days and weeks.  It becomes increasingly important to stay tuned-in to the granular issues as they unfold in order to fully appreciate the landscape that surrounds us.   It can be challenging to absorb information as the pace increases, yet it is critical to remain aware so that each building block in the nationalist policy making remains in context.

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Perhaps due to timing, or maybe content combined with the pragmatic answers dropping all pretense; or maybe, it’s just the two interviewers representing the globalist opposition and Greer facing them both down with easy dispatch. I’m not sure why, but this is one of the best discussions/interviews with USTR Jamieson Greer ever.

Soup to nuts Greer explains the policy, issues, friction points and pragmatic approaches that apply to economic adversaries like China.  Greer just cuts to the chase, you cannot truly negotiate with China because nothing about them is going to change, ever.  So, you manage your relationship with them, limit your exposure and limit as much risk as possible. Greer is exactly correct and makes no excuses. Pure economic pragmatism.

The same outlook applies to Canada.  Again, Greer isn’t playing the pretending game, and the panelist inquisitors are left jaw-agape while trying to frame a headline capture.  Listen to the conflict issues as outlined by Greer.  Canada is “doubling down on globalism”, the USA is not. That means we can never reach agreement, period – full stop, end of it!

Greer comes back to this point several times, including at the end when he outlines all the reasons why President Trump will terminate the USMCA trade pact.   This is a must watch interview:    

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This interview is like kryptonite to Canadians who are so caught up in their pontificating arrogance (Bloomberg) that they just cannot fathom the weakness of their position.  Canadian’s have bought the lies and nonsense from Carney, and it is very challenging to remain respectful of the Canadian position.

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