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The Trump administration has sparked a full-blown “financial crisis” within the U.S. Navy after pillaging coffers earmarked for service member payrolls, The Guardian reported after speaking with U.S. Navy officials and reviewing new documents.Dollars earmarked for U.S. Navy payrolls were being moved, according to The Guardian, to cover costs associated with President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran, a conflict that has drained the United States’ supply of munitions stockpiles. A Pentagon memo reviewed by the outlet warns of “shortfalls in payroll” accounts for U.S. service members due to Pentagon “raiding.”“The piggy bank is broken,” said Harlan Ullman, a retired U.S. Navy officer and military academic, speaking with The Guardian. Another U.S. Navy official who spoke with The Guardian on the condition of anonymity revealed the “imaginative” workarounds being employed to circumvent payroll shortfalls.“The money for payroll was robbed to pay for overseas contingencies and is being backfilled by money that hasn’t been spent,” the U.S. Navy official said. “They are backfilling payroll so we get enough money in our paycheck.”While a U.S. Navy spokesperson dismissed reports that U.S. Navy payrolls were at risk of falling short, the “cash shortage” within the branch was “no secret,” The Guardian reported.“They’re just not speaking publicly about it,” said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.“And I suspect that is a deliberate decision of the civilian leaders in the Pentagon, starting at secretary, that this is for political reasons, that they don’t want to look like they’re damaging future military readiness over a war that is becoming increasingly a political liability.”One former military officer who now works for a U.S. Navy contracting company and was “briefed on the shortfalls” was far more bleak in his assessment.“They’re f-----,” the former officer said, speaking with The Guardian on the condition of anonymity. “They shot all their weapons; they trashed all their ships; they ran out of their money.”

Risk of fresh flooding had forced rescue teams to withdraw as residents rushed up hills to escape possible river surgeNepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updatesVisual guide: how the deadly flooding unfoldedTell us: have you been affected by the flash floods?Rescuers searching for survivors of deadly flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border have resumed their efforts after suspending operations when a debris dam burst its bank on Friday, increasing the risk of fresh flooding.Residents in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, on the border with Tibet, were seen rushing up hillsides ⁠on Friday to escape a possible surge in the river, ⁠according to witnesses. Fears of another flood came as authorities in Nepal and China said that at least 543 people had been killed in the disaster. Continue reading...

Book was removed for review earlier this month following complaint but reinstated after petition and State Library letter to Waverley councilFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA Sydney library has returned to its borrowing shelves a book critical of Israel called How to Sell a Genocide following a public campaign and an intervention from the State Library of New South Wales.Waverley library removed the book “for review” earlier this month after the Jewish news outlet JWire reported it had approached the council. Continue reading...

Other governments could seek similar concessions, while separate legal action is pending in places ranging from Kenya to the NetherlandsIn October 2021, Abrham Meareg’s father, a professor of chemistry in Ethiopia’s northern town of Bahir Dar, was shot at close range and died outside his family home. This was in the middle of the country’s civil war.For weeks, Facebook’s algorithm had actively promoted posts calling for the academic to be murdered, according to Meareg and Foxglove, a nonprofit organisation supporting Meareg’s lawsuit against the company in Kenya. These posts included photos of his father and his home address. Continue reading...

Any hopes that President Donald Trump may have had about Canadians bowing to his trade demands likely died on Wednesday afternoon.With the American president going toe-to-toe with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a growing trade war, MS NOW’s Alex Tabet interviewed voters in Ontario and they had a lot to say.And more than a few words were bleeped when it came to talking about Trump after Tabet claimed most feel they have “been pushed to the brink.”One man challenged Trump to keep up the attacks after being asked, “What would you tell President Trump right now?”“Snuggle up, boy. Elbows up, Canadians,” he replied with a grin as his partner laughed. “We don't take that stuff, we don't back down from a fight. Never have, never will. Bring it.”A woman in a Toronto Blue Jays jersey stated, “I’m fully behind what Carney has done. F--- the U.S.”Another man was asked, “He's recently threatened to rename Lake Ontario, Lake America. What do you make of that threat?” Without pause, the man replied, “So I think there's also talk about renaming Lake Michigan 'Lake Epstein'.”“I tell him to f--- off,” another man in a cap told Tabet. “Be honest with you? Do something else. Get somebody in there that’s got some respect for people and his country.”After an edit he added, “I think they should shove it right where it belongs. I like Canada. Canada is Canada. It's been that way all the time, been a free country. I know we have some problems in our country, but poor states, we got health care. They look after us and it's fun being up here. Go down there, what do you get? Nothing. You got to pay for everything. How's that? How's that happen?”Returning to the studio and host Peter Alexander, Tabet dryly added, “You heard it there. Lots of flowery language. But in classic Canadian fashion, those curse words were immediately preceded by — I was going to say the Canadians are generally about as nice as folks get, but they had some tough words for the president.” - YouTube youtu.be

Bird eggs intercepted in homemade incubators at Johannesburg airport as officials try to halt wildlife traffickingSouth African police have arrested two Thai nationals in separate incidents for allegedly attempting to smuggle endangered parrot eggs out of the country as authorities try to stem the tide of wildlife trafficking.A 50-year-old Thai national was arrested at OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg on 20 August, carrying 50 bird eggs in a homemade incubator in a hand-luggage bag, South Africa’s environment ministry said in a statement. Continue reading...

President Donald Trump has submitted a nuclear agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Congress for approval, a move that has the potential to radically reshape the balance of power in the Middle East, according to a new report. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing "an administration official," that the agreement includes a stipulation that Saudi Arabia recognize the State of Israel and sign the Abraham Accords. The Kingdom has not signed the accords because of Israel's resistance to Palestinian statehood. The Journal added that the agreement is expected to set off "intense debate" on Capitol Hill. "When Trump officials announced the 30-year accord last month, they said then that it would give U.S. companies a central role in developing Saudi Arabia’s nuclear infrastructure while excluding foreign competition," the report reads in part."But the deal has proved to be controversial because it would potentially open the door for uranium enrichment to take place on Saudi territory," it added. The deal was submitted at a time when Trump appears to be looking for a way out of the war against Iran. Trump has threatened to increase hostilities with the regime if it does not relent, but those threats have thus far yielded no returns. Meanwhile, public polling shows that more than three-quarters of Americans are against the war. Economic data has also pointed to the conflict for the ongoing economic challenges, which are also weighing on Trump's approval rating.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe reportedly slipped into Moscow on a secret trip Tuesday, marking the highest-level visit by a Trump administration official to Russia since January — even as the Kremlin insists no such meeting is happening at all.CBS News and Axios both reported Ratcliffe's presence in the Russian capital, citing sources familiar with the situation, though neither outlet identified who he was meeting or what was discussed. Meanwhile, according to Al Jazeera, flight-tracking data showed a U.S. military C-17 departing Riga, Latvia early Tuesday morning and landing in Moscow roughly 74 minutes later, before departing again later in the day.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov flatly denied anything was underway, saying, "No, there are no such plans." When pressed specifically about reports of the U.S. military plane landing in Moscow, Peskov claimed he had "no such information."But Axios reported that Washington gave Ukraine advance notice of the senior delegation's trip and asked Kyiv to hold off on strikes until the group left Russian territory.The visit comes as U.S.-brokered talks to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine remain stalled, though Moscow did free a former U.S. Marine detained since 2022 earlier this month, reportedly over health concerns.Ratcliffe has quietly played a central role in several high-profile prisoner swaps between Washington and Moscow since President Trump returned to office in January 2025, including the release of dual national Ksenia Karelina last year. If confirmed, his reported Moscow trip would be the first by a sitting CIA director since William Burns traveled there in 2021.The CIA declined to comment on the reports.