Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 5/14/2026

28:31Ben Meiselas:So he personally benefits, but then he can bankrupt his LLCs. Oops, that's not me. That's my LLC. That's what he's done his whole career. Anyway, here he is talking to Xi or here he is saying, Xi would like to see a deal made. He said, if I can be of any help, I would like to help. Here, let's play this clip. President Xi would like to see a deal made. He would like to see a deal made. And he did offer, he said, if I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help. He did say that. Yeah, he did say that. And look, anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some kind of a relationship with him.

29:08But he said, I would love to be of help. If I could be of any help whatsoever, he'd like to see the Hormuz Strait open. He said, if I could be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help.

29:19Ben Meiselas:Okay, so then what do you do? Then he said he'd like to help. Did you get a commitment? Was there a deal? Or are you talking about a framework for a deal that has a framework for a deal that doesn't... What am I missing here? What did you get? What did you extract? Okay, so let's hear from Marco Rubio, right? Secretary of State. We heard from the foreign spokesperson for Iran about what they're saying about Taiwan. So Rubio, what say you, Rubio? Let's play this clip. The other topics. We know where they stand, and I think they know where we stand. Do you think China wants to invade Taiwan? Well, I think China's preference is probably to have Taiwan willingly, voluntarily join them.

30:08In a perfect world, what they would want is some vote or a referendum in Taiwan that agrees to fold in. I think that's what they would prefer. Ultimately, it's featured prominently in President Xi's mandate in the time he's been in office. He's made clear that what they call reunification, that's what they call it, is something that has to happen at some point. We think it would be a terrible mistake to force that through force or anything of that nature. There would be repercussions for that globally, not just from the United States. And we kind of leave it there. That sort of ambiguity is what I think has defined the way we characterize this issue.

30:42And the reason being strategic ambiguity is we don't want to see conflict. We don't want to see something disruptive happen because I think it would be very disruptive for the world and for both countries.

30:52Ben Meiselas:Okay, so what are you going to be doing about it? You've articulated China's position. What was America's position there? What's America going to do? Are you going to talk about our other allies in Asia? Are you talking about Japan? Sure. If you want to say there's strategic ambiguity in Taiwan, do you want to talk about whether there's ambiguity with Japan, with South Korea, with our allies? Did you consult with any of them before this trip? Jeremy, do we have the clip where Xi Jinping talks about the Thucydides trap where Xi goes to Trump. Currently, we're seeing transformation not seen in a century accelerating across the globe.

31:43Ben Meiselas:Let's play that clip if we got it. Currently, transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. The world has come to a new crossroads. Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides trap. So that's what he was saying. What about Treasury Secretary Scott Besant? When Besant was asked by Joe Kiernan on CNBC, will Xi ask Trump to change the longstanding strategic ambiguity policy or limit arms sales to Taiwan? We know the answer because China said it publicly. China made it very clear. They said, we're going to get into conflict and clashes against you.

32:32Ben Meiselas:So to the extent the whole relationship was defined by strategic ambiguity, meaning ambiguity from both sides, China's putting forward a statement that says, we will go to war with you if you help Taiwan, essentially. How else do you interpret clashes and conflict, the language that they use here. There will be clashes and conflicts with us if you support Taiwan. Okay. So what is Treasury Secretary Scott Besson doing? Here's what he says. Let's play it. Sure. Sure, Joe. It wouldn't be a U.S.-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up. And I'm confident that President Trump understands the issues around that and is very, very resolute in his answers.

33:28And I'm sure we'll be hearing more from him in the coming days on that.

33:35Ben Meiselas:Something to note as well. One of the ways that China is improving its standing in the world and developing global alliances is by being the global leader on the green transition. So as Donald Trump mocks green energy, as Donald Trump calls it, the green new scam, as Donald Trump says, no solar, as Donald Trump says, we're not going to be doing windmills. We hate the wind and it doesn't work. Donald Trump and his regime don't know the way batteries work. UN climate chief was lavishing praise on China as Trump meets with Xi. China is reaping the benefits as the global leader on the green transition and other nations should follow as the Iran war shows the vulnerability of fossil fuel based economies with the top United States, the United Nations climate official says.

34:31Ben Meiselas:It goes on to say the further China goes, the faster the clean energy transition accelerates, the greater the benefit to your people and economy, says Simon Steele, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in the text of a speech delivered Thursday in Beijing, where China leads others follow. Steele's comments at a major university in China, home to several of China's leading climate institutes, coincides with Donald Trump's visit. It is in every country's interest to seize the moment for prosperity and for stability, Steele said. That requires doubling down on climate multilateralism.

35:11Ben Meiselas:Whereas Donald Trump's regime withdrew a second time from the Paris Agreement, the binding 2015 accord on global warming, Chinese leaders have remained committed to climate action, even as the Iran conflict has triggered global energy shocks. Critics also point to critics also point to China's role, at least last year's COP climate summit, where the US was absent and many diplomats called for assertive leadership from Beijing. And then China's building out its green energy factories, green energy companies across the world right now, lending its technology. And it's not just good for the environment, it's good for business.

35:55And they're making a lot of

35:59Ben Meiselas:money on it towards the end of the Biden administration, but the Trump regime reversed all of that. Let's take our first and only break of the show. I always want to talk about climate a little bit. Let's take our first and only break of the show. We come back. I want to discuss what was going on in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives today. I want to talk about the Lutnick's deposition transcript being released and my observations there, including that. Lutnik refused to answer any questions about Donald Trump's communications with him. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about what was going on in BRICS meeting with Iran's foreign minister, Aragji, what he was saying there while Donald Trump was in Beijing.

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41:11Ben Meiselas:Welcome back. Ben on breaking news. I'm Ben Mycelis. This is your breaking news. So while we had the Trump, Xi Jinping, whatever you want to call that taking place, Trump fawning over Xi Jinping in Beijing, Donald Trump selling out decades of United States geopolitical interests so that Donald Trump can make himself feel strong. Donald Trump just in real time breaking the United States position as the leader in the world. You had other major world conferences taking place. Also, if you were to be planning a meeting like this, you'd probably want to see, well, what else has taken place in the world?

41:56Ben Meiselas:Is this good timing for this event? Because at the same time you had Trump meeting with Xi, you had a major meeting of the BRICS nations taking place in India. Now, Prime Minister Modi of India and India generally used to be a very close ally of the United States. And the United States worked very hard in order to build that relationship with India. Donald Trump certainly picked a favorite during the war between India and Pakistan. Donald Trump took the side of Pakistan after Pakistan said that Donald Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize. And India said, why would we give him a Nobel Peace Prize?

42:41Ben Meiselas:He had nothing to do with stopping this war. And Pakistan created a crypto fund and invested in Donald Trump's crypto company, World Liberty Financial. And so Trump has developed an affinity for Pakistan. I look personally, I think Pakistan has done a decent job in the mediations. And I think they've demonstrated actually, you know, an appearance at least of a desire of willingness to try to step in in a very thorny situation to try to reach a deal. And so, you know, say what you want. As I said, I try to evaluate things objectively as I can. It should be noted that it's reported recently, though, that Pakistan has been keeping Iranian military equipment in Pakistan to protect it before Trump and Netanyahu's invasion.

43:32Ben Meiselas:So that's led some to question, Well, is Pakistan truly serving as a neutral or not? But in any event, the point I'm making, Trump threw away the relationship with Modi. And Modi then moved closer to Russia and China, now gets a lot of its oil from Russia and is strengthening its relationship there, and kind of threw away decades and decades and decades of a strong relationship there. So Modi has been holding the BRICS meeting. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, that's the main countries of BRICS, but Iran is part of it and other countries are part of it as well. And so as Donald Trump and Rubio are attacking NATO, as they're attacking American alliances that America used to lead, BRICS, which was created to basically counter NATO, has been growing strongly.

44:35Ben Meiselas:And so BRICS was on full display their unity and their strength as Trump was in China getting checkmated by Xi and throwing away our NATO alliances. And who was one of the main speakers at the BRICS meeting? Iran's foreign minister, Aragji, who met with Xi last week. So last week in advance of Donald Trump's visit to Beijing, Iraq chief from Iran, foreign minister, met with Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, and they mapped this out. They planned a lot of this. Part of the plan we saw implemented when Donald Trump was in Beijing, where Iran let out about 30 Chinese tankers and VLCCs, those very large cargo container ships, the VLCCs, because what Iran and China realized is Trump was going to try to use the Strait of Hormuz as a leverage point for China to say, well, China, you need our help to help open up the Strait of Hormuz.

45:46Ben Meiselas:Let's do it together because you depend so much on oil and from cargo that goes through the Strait of Hormuz. So you need this as well, to which Iran allowed these Chinese VLCCs to go through. And then because Donald Trump wanted the meeting, the summit with Xi to make him look good personally, who's even talking about the blockade at this point? I mean, those ships, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, just get out and go to China while Xi was there. So yet another checkmate move. Then you have China, which leads basically the BRICS, with Russia and with India now, of India before, but taking a more assertive role.

46:36Ben Meiselas:Then they host Aragji, who's out there giving speeches like this, saying at BRICS, at the BRICS meeting, Aragji goes to virtually everyone in this room, our resistance against US bullying is not an unfamiliar battle. So as Trump has attacked NATO and divided it. Article five basically means nothing anymore. Ukraine is, you see how this is all being coordinated though, right? Trump in China. Then you have the BRICS meeting in India. Then you have Putin doing the most vicious and the one of the most serious drone swarms and ballistic attacks of the entire war, of his entire invasion of Ukraine while Trump is there in Beijing.

47:25Ben Meiselas:And then you have Iraq Chi of Iran rallying the BRICS nations united against the United States bullying. Here, play this clip. Everyone in this room, our resistance against U.S. bullying is not an unfamiliar battle. So many of us encounter slight variations of the same repugnant coercion. It is high time for us to jointly step up and work towards making clear that those practices belong in the dustbin of history. Today, our nations are closer to one another than ever before, and we cannot ignore the common and dangerous challenge we all face. History has shown that empires in decline will stop at nothing to arrest their inevitable fates.

48:09A wounded animal will desperately clow and roar on its way down.

48:14Ben Meiselas:Notice the symmetry of the language. Empires in decline, behaving desperately on their way down. That's what we've seen in history. Xi Jinping, Thucydides trap. We must not fall into such a trap, which means an empire is falling, another empire rises. So you have Xi Jinping saying that there. These are strategic, coordinated positions. And when you say, well, what's our State Department supposed to be doing? And what's our Defense Department supposed to be doing? Should they be, you know, should they be chained? You know, what are they supposed to be? They're supposed to be on message. You know, they're supposed to be coordinating with our allies.

49:06Ben Meiselas:So in the past, when Trump was in China, NATO would be speaking with one voice. Maybe we would coordinate a sideline summit in Asia while Trump was in Beijing. maybe we would be holding a meeting somewhere in Asia with all of our NATO allies and have a joint statement about NATO support of South Korea or NATO support of Japan or NATO support of Philippines or NATO support of other countries in the region. And there's just there's none of that. There's there's there's none of that. Instead, Jeremy, do we have that video of Hegseth where he like does the video about the one point five trillion dollar budget?

49:58Ben Meiselas:See if we can find this video. Yeah. Like instead, this this is what we get now. This is the behavior of the United States. Let's play it. Despite what you might hear in the media, America is not in decline. We remain the strongest military power on Earth, but that power requires renewal. And with global threats that are constantly evolving, it's time to make a$1.5 trillion investment, a generational down payment. First off, you start off that video by saying like you're obsessed with the media. despite what you've heard in the media, we are not in decline. Okay. That's like literally what losers say, right?

50:39Ben Meiselas:Like who starts off anything like that? Like if you're strong, then just behave that way. You know, as we used to say in the United States, talk soft or walk soft and carry a big stick. Lots of people say that I'm a loser, but I'm not a loser. I'm cool. Right? Who talks like that? You are showing through things like that how weak you are, how not confident you are. And by the way, I want to dig into this a little more. I saw Elon Musk and I saw Jensen Wang from NVIDIA there. I saw those two CEOs there. And I saw Tim Cook. I saw him there. Weren't there going to be like 50 CEOs who are going to be showing up there as well?

51:34Ben Meiselas:Did they get in the room? Or did they just travel there so that they could have their stock prices manipulated? Did they just go to China? What did they do? Did they cut actual deals? We gave our H200 chips to China. What did our companies get? I guess they got... I mean, look, let's be real. the markets, check what the markets were like today. The markets, which Trump manipulates all the time, went up today, I think. Let me go. I'll just check what they were. Let's see what they were today. S &P up 56. Let's see. NASDAQ up 232. So yeah, I mean, the stock market went up today. So I guess people who trade stocks did good.

52:21I don't know in a long and sustainable way that it's not translating to more jobs.

52:27Ben Meiselas:That's not making life more affordable for people. That's not impacting people who are psychologically tortured living paycheck to paycheck right now. That's not – the Dow up 370. Yeah, that's not helping Americans afford things. There's a reason why consumer sentiment is at its lowest level in history right now. Consumer sentiment, the lowest since the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey was created. It's the lowest since that was created. All right, so now let me bring you to what else was going down today. Hearings. Hearings in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. One of the things that have or that has really bothered me a lot is, of course, well, we know that Donald Trump lies about everything.

53:12Ben Meiselas:His regime is crooked, corrupt, horrible. We know they're going to lie. Anything from the White House account is going to be beyond cringey and gross. That's just what they do. But CENTCOM, Central Command, I still would always think, all right, Admiral Brad Cooper, who's ever in that CENTCOM position, you know, is someone of integrity and they're going to just, they're going to call it like it is. They're not MAGA. They're CENTCOM. And you'd always hear from military people, look, we know that the political side of this is corrupt, but our war fighters, our generals, our admirals. These are top-notch people.

53:58Ben Meiselas:These are high-character people. Well, I think after Donald Trump and his regime on the civilian side purged all of the top people, they purged the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, C.Q. Brown. They purged the former Army Chief of Staff, the top person in the Army. They purged the, they forced out the head of the command in Caribbean South Com, I think. They got rid of all of the people. They got rid of all, I mean, like dozens and dozens of top generals and admirals were forced into retire, were fired, were pushed out. So I think you get a situation now where these people are acting a lot like MAGA.

54:38Ben Meiselas:When I see a lot of the posts from CENCOM, I'm like, this looks more like propaganda than just than just giving me the facts. And so let me pull up this one right here, where we have, let's see, this one over here. It's the 29 to 231, Jeremy, where Senator Gillibrand is speaking to Admiral Cooper. If Iranians were warned, how did we bomb 22 schools? And what are you doing to investigate whether or not war crimes are being committed. So we know that the United States shot a tomahawk into Manab, which resulted in over 160 little girls being killed. It's a war crime. Anybody responsible for that should be tried in the Hague.

55:31Ben Meiselas:They're war criminals. It's unforgivable. Unforgivable. They should be brought to justice. They're war criminals for doing that, anybody in that chain of command. It's unacceptable. And I hope one day they are tried at The Hague, absolutely, including Exit. That's what I want to see happen. Okay, well, we also know from Midas Touch reporting, New York Times reporting, DropSite has done a really good job reporting this, others have done a really good job reporting on this, that there were likely dozens of other schools, hospitals, gyms that were also bumped, Don't get enough attention, not like Manab, but there are other dozens.

56:16Ben Meiselas:So what do you know about that, Cooper? You're a CENTCOM guy. What do you know about that? Let's play it. Have you been implementing all the laws that are required under current law to minimize civilian death? Senator, we have executed every operation consistent with the law of armed conflict. The subject of civilian casualties is a particular passion of mine. We pay attention to it. We follow all the procedures and have gone above and beyond to, in my case, personally warn the Iranian people of several instances during conflict where they were being potentially used as human targets. If they've been warned, how did we then bomb 22 schools?

56:53There is no indication that we have that that has been corroborated. How many schools have we bombed? There is one active civilian casualty investigation from the 13 ,629 munitions. So how do you explain the publicly available information that 22 schools have been hit and multiple hospitals? There's no way that we can corroborate that. No indication of that whatsoever, Senator. There's no way you can corroborate or no indication of it? Which one? No indication. Well, the indication is what's publicly available. There is indication. Have you investigated those claims? We have not. Why have you not?

57:28if this is a passion of yours, if you believe that the civilian casualties are not consistent with the law of war and not consistent with human rights obligations that our military regularly follows with great pride and great diligence, why have you not investigated those allegations when they're publicly being made on the cover of the New York Times? I'll be happy to take a look at each instance. I would like a report. Will we be able to do that? about whether there have been attacks that have resulted in the destruction of schools and hospitals. And if so, why? And how then last have you managed the 90 % cut to the personnel who are supposed to avoid civilian targets?

58:13Happy to provide any report. And I would invite you and every staff member here to come to Tampa to look at the process to see exactly how it works. Thank you. Thank you, Admiral. Yeah.

58:24Ben Meiselas:Don't even say thank you at the end of it. Horrible behavior right there. In any normal time, he should be immediately removed from that. Done. You didn't even investigate it, and you had the audacity to testify that there was no way of corroboration. Her questioning was pitch perfect cross-exam. She was listening to what he was saying, and it became very clear to her that they didn't even look into any other incident other than Manab, just because Manab had gotten a lot of attention at the outset. So all of these other incidents, they weren't even looking into at all, actively covering it up by being actively ignorant.

59:09Ben Meiselas:By the way, it's exactly what we see in Israel with Netanyahu. They're not looking into it. They're not corroborating it. They don't know anything about it. If you criticize them, you're anti-Semitic and how dare you criticize anything that they do or say. And then they're like, well, actually, there are 80 ,000 or 90 ,000 deaths. So everything that people were saying about the genocide was accurate, but whatever. And then people talk about it. And then what would today. Netanyahu wanted to, he and Netanyahu posted that he was suing the New York Times for defamation because they wrote an article about truly horrific things that were going on.

59:52Ben Meiselas:And they're going to, a nation state is going to, a nation state is going to sue for defamation. I mean, again, it's the same playbook, right? You're going to sue? You're going to sue? You have covert nuclear weapons, and you're going to file a civil lawsuit in New York's superior court? It's just so pathetic. You know, when Trump's like that, you know, the ranting and raving at 3 a.m. in the morning and whining about this and whining about that. And all of these sycophants are just a bunch of whiners. By the way, hat tip to Senator Gillibrand also, because when she had Scott Turner, Donald Trump's housing and urban development secretary, who cut billions of dollars for low-income housing, and we're trying to understand, well, what's your plan for housing?

1:00:54Ben Meiselas:We get you don't like Biden's, but what's your plan for housing? Watch, I mean, Senator Gillibrand, A plus, Senator of the Week, right? I mean, this is truly incredible work. Watch what she does to Turner. Let's play. And what I will say, and I offer this, is number one, the point in time report in the Biden administration, HUD, said that we had 770 ,000 people in America that were homeless at one given time. And this is with record funding. So we have record funding, but yet we have an increase in street homelessness. Right. So what is your record? You had this job for well over a year. I just want to know, did you get the number down?

1:01:39Do we have 700 ,000 homeless still, or is it a million or a million point five. So I get you want to do things differently. And this committee will support you as long as the goals are good. But where's the results? The report is delayed over a year, over a year. Yes. But I just don't want to hear about what you don't like about the Biden administration. You're in charge. You have a vision. Let's see it. Let's see the results. And you know what I do? I thank God that I'm in charge so we can do stuff different because the plays that were ran before I got here, they failed. I've been here. Let me speak, if you will.

1:02:14I got here. You said I have been here a little bit over a year. But you all had, during the Biden administration, four years. Stop talking about Biden. Talk about your record. This is so inaccurate, unhelpful, and doesn't let this committee do our job. If I may, the point-in-time report would be out by now if we did not have an unprecedented government shutdown. it would be out by now. If we weren't in constant litigation, it would be out by now. HUD has a great form. We have a great team, and we move very expeditiously. In what way does litigation... We could not work during the government shutdown.

1:02:51I think you're obfuscating. I'm not obfuscating. I'm just stating the facts. What way does litigation slow down your report? A government shutdown helps us to not be able to work. It was a government shutdown. Oh, I get that. But tell me about the litigation. The point-in-time report would be out right now if we did not have a government shutdown. irregardless of all of that during the Biden administration record funding oh my god if you talk about it's like record funding it's like two children saying I didn't do it my brother did it that's what I have to go off of just explain record funding your record record homelessness we have to do something different if after I'm gone if after I'm gone if it's still record I don't want to, you know, after you're gone, it's too late for the families that are suffering in New York today.

1:03:36Do you know what it's like to be a homeless little girl who has to have a Girl Scout troop just for other homeless little girls? Because that's all they have. That's the only consistency they have in their life. So I get you have a different vision. It's happened in my family. Yes, ma 'am, I do understand. I need to know if your stuff is working. I'm not talking to you about what I've heard. I'm talking to you about what I know. And what I do know, the housing first model failed.

1:04:02Ben Meiselas:By the way, if you go back and watch that again, there's some guy behind him who's like nodding his head. Just as bad as the people who are there on camera are the head nodders right behind them. And there's always the head nodders who stand behind people like that who spew a bunch of nonsense and are complicit in it. When I teach at law school, when I speak to younger people, I go, don't be a head nodder like that, okay? Don't be complicit in all. You don't have to be complicit. That behavior right there, and my dogs agree, is utterly pathetic. Blame, blame, blame, blame, blame. Biden, Biden, Biden.

1:04:43Ben Meiselas:Government shutdown. Government shutdown. Government shutdown. You're a loser. Do something. And all of these people, the Lutniks, the Bessens, the Greers, the Hegseths, the Trump, he assembled a team of grifter losers who are con artists. They're Ponzi schemers. And what do they do when they're caught? They blame others. And what's Donald Trump's plan in the Strait of Hormuz right now. There is none. It's just let it all fall apart and then wait to see who do I blame. Do I blame NATO? Do I blame the Democrats? Do I blame Canada? Do I blame someone in the Middle East? Who do I blame when it all blows up?

1:05:35Ben Meiselas:And this is Donald Trump's MO his whole life because he doesn't have principles or values. He cares about himself and himself alone. Here we are in 2026, May 14th, and we've got blaming Biden. Okay. And as the senator said, great. You don't like Biden. I get it. You don't like Biden. What is your plan? What are you doing? What's your thing? Can you show us the report? Can you show us the numbers? Can you give us the audit? How are you building the house? Stop saying Biden. Stop it. Americans are suffering. You came in and promised on day one, here are the things that we were going to do. Inflation was going to go down under 2%.

1:06:24Ben Meiselas:The war in Ukraine was going to end. That you were going to get all of these benefits. That things were going to be far more affordable and you did not do any of it. You did not do any of it. And my dogs are there saying, Ben, you got to go. You got to go, Ben. So I have no choice. I have no choice but to listen to my dogs at this point. Anyway, make sure you hit subscribe. Watch the brother show tonight, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. Check it out then. Check it out. I'll be doing the brothers. Hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers. Also, become a member. Join. Help us grow.

1:07:06Ben Meiselas:You don't see this reporting anywhere else, right? I mean, maybe a little bit you see over here, but you don't see this reporting anywhere else. Help us grow. One of the ways to help us grow is by becoming a member. So become a member now. My dogs say become a member. All right. I'll see you next time. That's been on breaking news. I'm glad they waited to the end of the show. So shout out Midas Mining. Okay, Taco and Chiquito. I got you. I love you, Taco and Chiquito. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.