Why is President Donald Trump raging at comic and pundit Bill Maher in the middle of an actual war? Because Maher has promised to deliver a new barrage in their feud — and it hits in a few hours.

The United States is in the middle of a war with Iran that has claimed the lives of at least six American servicemembers — with Trump reportedly telling senators that more will die before the campaign is over.

But on Friday morning, Trump peppered his social media feed with posts attacking Maher.

How we got here is a story that technically goes back years, as Maher has long been a critic of Trump, including a satirical bet lampooning the “Birther” obsession that resulted in a $5 million lawsuit from Trump.

But Maher attempted a “Nixon goes to China” moment by having dinner with Trump at the White House — an event he frequently describes with pride at his own open-mindedness.

Things took another turn on the Feb. 13 edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, during which one bit — a comical reading of a Truth Social post — caught Trump’s attention:

Hours later on Saturday morning, Trump lashed out over the bit in an epic-length post on Truth Social in which he accused Maher of peculiar behavior at their dinner. Those attacks were the basis for Trump’s posts this morning.

So, why is Trump lashing out anew, three weeks and one war later?

Maher was off last week, but he spent part of his Feb. 20 monologue this week rebutting Trump — and promised to devote his signature “New Rules” segment to a deeper dive when his show came back after a break:

BILL MAHER: I woke up Saturday morning to a blistering social media text from him. Went on and on. Valentine’s Day, by the way.

He was very mad at me because I didn’t get his joke about how China is gonna make Canada give up hockey. You know, I think we’re going to have to workshop that one for a while.

So he went off on me and said, you know, the dinner we had was a waste of time.

Well, I didn’t think it was.

And then I’m a jerk, and I’m at low ratings, lightweight, and all this sh*t. Because I never stopped criticizing him. I never said I would.

And I know how women feel now. A guy buys you dinner and then expects you to put out. OK? I’m not that guy.

And of course, he accused me of having Trump derangement syndrome.

OK, we’re off next week. The next week our show, I think March 6th, we come back. I’m going to address this at the end. His whole long screed. Yes, and prove that I don’t have Trump derrangement syndrome.

And a lot of other stuff he said that that wasn’t really true, that, you know, I immediately asked for a drink. OK, “he immediately wanted a vodka.”

OK, it was a margarita. It was not a vodka, and it wasn’t immediately. I had a drink before dinner, as people do. He said, I was nervous and scared, no confidence.

Bullsh*t! It’s so funny, because I got so much sh*t from the left for reporting honestly that, in person, he was very different, very nice, very gracious.

And then he says, no, he was scared. I’m like the Democrats with an election. I just can’t win!

The “New Rules” segment typically encompasses the last 15 or so minutes of the show, and is known for featuring some of Maher’s most blistering commentaries. That promise comes due a little over 12 hours after Trump’s posts.

Watch above via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

The post Here’s Why Trump Is Raging At Bill Maher in Middle of Actual War — The Big One Hits Tonight first appeared on Mediaite.

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Open-ear design earbuds have been gaining in popularity, likely because active noise-cancelling tech has gotten so good that people have forgotten what the world around them sounds like and don't want to shut it out anymore. The Ultra Open Earbuds are Bose's attempt at riding the trending tech wave, and they're a pretty good option at that, earning an 8/10 from our colleagues at CNET. And at their current price of $199.99 (originally $299.99), they are also something of a steal. This is the lowest price they've yet reached, according to price-tracking tools, and they are available in seven different colors. 

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Open-ear designs are not for everyone—especially audiophiles. They have the same downside as bone conduction headphones: They let noise pollution in, and the bass and some mids can sound weak. But the tradeoff may be worth it if you want to remain aware of your surroundings, and certainly with these buds you'll be able to hear if a cyclist is about to pass you as you're running on the bike path.

The Bose Ultra Open buds are not waterproof, but they are water-resistant; they carry an IPX4 rating, meaning they can take some splashes, but can't be submerged in water. The charging case uses a USB-C cable, but you can buy a wireless charging case (sold separately) for an additional $50 if you don't want to rely on a cable. Either way, you'll get about 7.5 hours of juice from the buds if you have the Immersive Audio feature off, and about two full charges from the case, for a total of around 27 hours.

While these earbuds don't have multipoint connection, they do have a feature to pair two devices simultaneously and switch between them by pressing a button on the earbud—a controlled multipoint connection of sorts. They are compatible with Bluetooth 5.3 and work with the AAC, AptX Adaptive, and SBC codecs, so Android devices will get better audio than Apple users. Both users will be able to customize the EQ on the app and use features, which you can read more about in CNET's 8/10 review.

CNN critics berated the White House Thursday for splicing clips of actual strikes on Iran with scenes from the popular video game “Call of Duty.”

The White House is “reaching out to a very important, very big part of the population, including and especially those, I think that they consider their base — gamers,” said Dana Bash with Inside Politics, referencing the post that opens with a scene from the game.

Bash added that White House communications director Steven Cheung responded to the post, “Ws in the chat, boys!” — a gaming term when players do well they put “Win” in the chat field.

Nia-Malika Henderson said the video was “in keeping with the way Pete Hegseth is also talking about the war.”

“He of course, had a press conference yesterday talking about utter dominance, talking about the war, likening it to a football game, I think was one of the analogies that he used,” Henderson said of the Defense secretary. “And it’s part of the sort of the ‘bro culture’ that Donald Trump used to win. It’s part of Pete Hegseth, why he’s the secretary of war and why it’s not the you know, the Department of Defense anymore. So it’s part of the selling of the war, and we’ll see if it’s effective.”

Henderson added, “I think listen, if you were part of the families who have lost Americans — six Americans have died — This is quite distasteful to liken war to a video game because, you know, these are soldiers lives who are at risk.
And so, to liken them to a football game or a video game, I think is is offensive to a lot of people.”

Panelist David Sanger, with The New York Times, said he’s “never seen anything like this, that sort of takes the real footage and tries to basically suggest this is a game.”

Sanger continued, “It does fit in, and it also fits in with secretary Hegseth’s criticism of the press for making too much of the casualties.”

“Yeah, which and I think everybody would agree with this: Nobody’s making too much of casualties,” Bash said. “People who are reporting on it are honoring their service, the giving the ultimate sacrifice, not doing so to offend President Trump. It’s about the soldiers, not the commander.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

The post CNN Critics Berate Trump WH For Splicing Real Clips of Iran Strikes With ‘Call of Duty’: Like ‘This Is a Game’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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If you lose something important, invariably it will happen at the worst possible time—say, your keys disappearing right before you need to leave the house, or you can't find the remote and the big game is starting. Bluetooth trackers exist to help solve this exact problem, and now is a good time to pick up a bunch of them at a discount: A four-pack Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 2 is currently $44.99 on Woot, compared with $55.99 on Amazon.

The bundle includes four trackers. Prime members get free standard shipping, while everyone else pays $6, though the item does not ship to Alaska, Hawaii, or PO box addresses. Woot lists the deal as running for a little over three weeks or until it sells out, whichever happens first. Price trackers also suggest this deal is about as low as these trackers have dropped.

Samsung SmartTag2

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Each tag weighs less than half an ounce, and Samsung has redesigned the casing to include a larger metal-reinforced loop to make it easier to attach the tracker to bags, bikes, or a pet collar without needing a separate holder, notes this PCMag review. The SmartTag 2 uses Bluetooth Low Energy to connect to your phone when you are nearby, so you can trigger a ring to help track something down around the house. If the item is farther away, the tag can still show its location through Samsung’s SmartThings Find network, which uses nearby Galaxy devices to anonymously update the tag’s location. Some newer Galaxy phones also support ultra-wideband (UWB), which adds directional guidance on the screen, so you can walk toward the tracker once you are close.

The tag itself is IP67-rated, so it can handle rain, dust, or being tossed into a gym bag without much concern. Samsung also uses a replaceable battery that can last around a year, so you won't need to replace the tracker every time it runs out of power. That said, the biggest catch is that this tracker is built for the Samsung ecosystem, given that it only works with Samsung Galaxy phones or tablets running Android 9 or newer, and it relies on Samsung’s SmartThings Find network. If you use an iPhone or another Android brand, this is not the right tracker for you (Apple’s AirTag works better for iPhones, while Tile Pro is a more flexible option for mixed-device households). For Galaxy users, though, the experience is simple, and the tracking network works well in busy areas.

If you caught The View on Wednesday, there’s a good chance you at least felt the temptation to check the calendar year as Elisabeth Hasselbeck rejoined the table and duked it out with some of her former colleagues.

Hasselbeck stepped in this week as a guest on The View host to fill in for Alyssa Farah Griffin, where she was reunited with Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, both of whom were hosting the show when Hasselbeck had a place at the table from 2003-2013.

Hasselbeck found herself debating everyone at the table when she defended President Donald Trump’s border policies and deportation efforts. While the other hosts called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign, especially in the light of immigration agents shooting and killing citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Hasselbeck argued the administration is taking on an issue ignored for too long.

She also called out her co-hosts as hypocrites themselves, noting the studio audience was vetted and had to go through security, comparing the measures to having a secure border.

Hasselbeck argued:

We need a strong border, especially now with our current global situation. And I believe that you may say you don’t want border control and you’re against ICE, but I actually don’t believe you in your daily lives. How many people in the audience here had to go through security to get here? Raise your hand, just be honest, otherwise you go to jail, I guess, for legal trespassing, right? This is an authorized audience. They had to through security, to get through the border, to just get right here, to hear us talk. We need strong borders more than ever right now. We are being infiltrated.

She noted large drops in border crossings and daily encounters by Border Patrol as proof that Trump’s actions are working.

“We’re not on the border when Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered, and death is not a mistake. That was a murder. That was murder,” Sunny Hostin shot back.

“As were those killed by illegal immigrants,” Hasselbeck said.

“Let’s not be dismissive about the fact that this—” Hostin continued as Hasselbeck jumped in.

“I’m not dismissive. I just said all of their lives matter,” she declared.

Hostin called Noem “unqualified” and accused her of showing “zero empathy” for Good and Pretti during the hearing, a point Hasselbeck also pushed back on.

After the tense exchange between the pair, Behar jumped in to cite a report on the small number of illegal immigrants taken into custody who have criminal convictions.

“I just want to give you this one statistic from the Cato Institute. Only 5% of people detained by ICE have violent convictions, 73% have no convictions. That’s really what the problem is,” Behar said

According to Cato Institute analysis, 5% of migrants booked into ICE custody have a violent criminal conviction. The report states that most have vice, immigration, or traffic violations. Immigration officials have argued many migrants booked into custody do not have convictions, but do have outstanding charges. The report is based on information ending on October 1, 2025.

Hasselbeck countered the report with her own statistics.

“450,000 children and families were trafficked under [former President] Joe Biden, letting them under. We have now reunited 146,000 children to their families,” she said.

The table erupted into a crosstalk debate as she tried to continue.

“These are not facts here,” she said before Goldberg took control.

Sara Haines argued the “how” of deportation policies is the problem and masked federal agents on the street is going to get mixed reactions from people who encounter them. Hasselbeck said she feels sympathy for Good, Pretti, and victims killed by illegal immigrants.

“I understand. I also believe that we have a God of borders,” she said. “We have a nation of borders for a good reason. I hate the fact that people are dying in this. My heart actually bleeds for this.”

Watch above via ABC.

The post ‘Not Facts!’ Elisabeth Hasselbeck Sets Off Fireworks During Intense Immigration Debate on The View first appeared on Mediaite.

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The greatest regret of my life is choosing to take French in high school. Don't get me wrong, I find French beautiful, and I was a dedicated A+ student. But as an adult, I’m constantly embarrassed by how little Spanish I know.

But even in adulthood, I knew it wasn't too late for me to learn Spanish, so I did what literally everyone does: I downloaded Duolingo. It's free, popular, and has a mascot with deeply threatening energy. What's not to love?

Eventually, I reached a 300-day streak—nearly a full year of daily practice!—but when I tried to have an actual conversation in Spanish, I could not hold my own, to put it gently. I realized that Duolingo had gamified me into feeling like I was making progress, rewarding streaks and unlocking owl animations while carefully avoiding the part where I learned, you know, to speak and understand Spanish.

Duolingo is a game, but Babbel is a learning tool

With a trip to Mexico City approaching, I signed up for Babbel. I didn't expect to be fluent, but I wanted to avoid being the most helpless monolingual American on the trip. And now that I'm on the other side of that vacation, I can say with confidence that every basic phrase I successfully attempted to speak was thanks to two things: 1) Babbel's grammar lessons, and 2) the generous patience of every local willing to communicate with me.

A few months of daily Babbel lessons genuinely helped me navigate asking how much something costs, whether I could pay by card, and ordering at a restaurant. Crucially, I felt I was doing all of this not from a place of pure regurgitation, but from a place of actual language understanding. That's a different feeling entirely.

Duolingo's genius is its dopamine loop, but that's its limitation too—a sustained streak, and not language acquisition, is the real product. Where Duolingo's scenarios include sentences like "My fathers are young and pretty," (a real example!), Babbel teaches you "Could I please have the check?"

Babbel is more structured. The grammar explanations are woven directly into lessons rather than siloed in a separate section you'll never visit. The scenarios are grounded in reality. The whole thing feels less like Candy Crush and more like...a class. Which, it turns out, might be why classrooms were never designed to feel like Candy Crush.

Babbel versus Duolingo: Point by point

Here’s my breakdown of how the most important ways these apps compare.

Duolingo:

• Free (with ads for unhinged mobile games)

• Great for building daily habits

• Solid vocabulary exposure

• Gamified streaks and rewards

• Grammar depth is limited

• Designed to feel like progress, no matter what

Babbel:

• Paid subscription (around $15 per month, give or take)

• Structured, grammar-forward lessons

• Real-world conversational scenarios

• Cultural context built in

• Purposeful over playful

• Designed to build actual skills

Questions to consider before you try any language learning app

Before you start using Babbel (or flirting with the Duolingo Owl), it's important to consider your actual goals. Whether you're prepping for a trip, want to keep your brain sharp, or actually become fluent, no app comparison means anything without first understanding what you're trying to achieve.

If your goal is casual learning or building a daily habit, Duolingo is genuinely a fine place to start. It's perfectly good for vocabulary exposure and using the psychology of habit formation to keep you coming back. There's real value in that! Just don't confuse a 300-day streak with 300 days of progress.

If your goal is to actually speak another language—to survive a vacation, hold a conversation, order food with confidence—Babbel is the more honest tool. And hey, both apps use streak mechanics to use habit formation psychology, but Babbel also integrates grammar explanations into lessons, offers far more practical and applicable conversation scenarios, and wraps everything in cultural context that makes the language feel alive rather than abstract.

Any language app will have limits, but Babbel is worth the cost

A major caveat here is that no app will make you fluent. Native speakers don't speak with the crisp, patient enunciation of a language app. Real people speak quickly, use slang, have regional accents, and might not be willing to wait patiently while you search for the right vocabulary. You'll eventually hit a wall with any app.

Duolingo's perpetual free tier is likely the decision-maker for most people. You'll never be locked out of educational content for lack of a credit card. The cost of "free," though, is a parade of deeply unhinged ads for other addictive phone games. A fair trade, perhaps, depending on your tolerance for chaos.

But if you're self-motivated and serious (or even just serious enough to want to survive a vacation!), then Babbel is the structured, purposeful, real-world-ready choice. It might feel less like a game, but I suppose that's the point. When I signed up, I caught a 50% deal: $8.95/month for 12 months. Babbel also offers a one-time lifetime access payment of $299.99, though at that investment level, you might as well hire a tutor? All in all, standard month-to-month pricing hovers around $15/month.

President Donald Trump went on an absolute tirade against Spain on Tuesday, bashing the country as “unfriendly” and maintaining that the U.S. can “fly in and use” their air bases despite its refusal to lend them to Uncle Sam.

The stunning moment came as Trump hosted German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House for a bilateral meeting.

When asked by a reporter about the cooperation of NATO in the days following Operation Epic Fury in Iran, Trump praised Germany and NATO chief Mark Rutte, who Trump said was fantastic.

But when it came to Spain, Trump was not as kind.

“Spain has been terrible,” he said. “In fact, I told Scott [Bessent] to cut off all dealings with Spain.”

In response to Spain’s refusal to allow the U.S. to use its air bases to conduct strikes in Iran, Trump was defiant, saying, “And now Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases and that’s all right. We could use their base if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it.”

And Spain was not the only European nation with which Trump has taken issue, adding that. “I’m not happy with the U.K., either.”

Trump did not mention U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer by name, but said, “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”

Read Trump’s remarks below:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Germany has been great. He has been terrific. Others have been very good, terrific. I think that the head of NATO, Mark, is fantastic. Mark Rutte. I think he’s fantastic. But some of the European- like Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain. Spain, first of all, it started when every European nation, at my request, paid 5%, which they should be doing and everybody was enthusiastic about it, Germany, everybody, and Spain didn’t do it. And now Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases and that’s all right. We could use their base if we want. We could just fly in and use it. Nobody’s going to tell us not to use it. But we don’t have to, but they were unfriendly and so I told them we don’t want- Spain has absolutely nothing that we need, other than great people. They have great people. But they don’t have great leadership. And as you know, they were the only country that NATO would not agree to go up to 5%. I don’t think they would agree to go up to anything. They wanted to keep it at 2% and they don’t pay the 2%. So we’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want to have anything to do with Spain. By the way, I’m not happy with the U.K. either. That island that you read about, the lease, for whatever reason, he made a lease of the island and somebody came and took it away from him. And it’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land there. It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours. So we are very surprised. This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.

Watch above via Fox News.

The post Trump GOES OFF on ‘Terrible’ Spain, Says US Can ‘Just Fly in and Use Their Bases’ Despite Their Refusal first appeared on Mediaite.