Top World News
Jul 7, 2026
Australian PM says Chinese missile test could have caused ‘considerable damage’ if weaponised
Solomon Islands prime minister says he doesn’t want to see more countries testing ICBMs in Pacific, adding ‘be our friend but don’t threaten us’ Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has said China’s weapons test in the Pacific risks fuelling dangerous nuclear proliferation, with the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fired on Monday capable of causing “considerable damage” if weaponised.International condemnation has grown overnight after China’s state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday that a “strategic missile carrying a dummy warhead” had been launched from a “strategic nuclear submarine of the navy”. Continue reading...
Jul 7, 2026
Dowry murders in India no longer spark public anger or debate, study finds
Thousands of women are killed in dowry disputes each year, despite the practice being banned in 1961Dowry deaths in India no longer provoke the public anger they once did, despite thousands of women’s lives still being lost every year, according to new research.The killings – women who are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes between families – have also faded from political debate, despite an increase in cases. Continue reading...
Jul 7, 2026
Sri Lanka prison riot kills 26, with more than 100 others wounded
Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries rushed to hospital after fighting between prisoners from two drug gangsClashes at a Sri Lankan jail have killed 26 people, including seven guards, and wounded more than 100 in the country’s deadliest prison riot in years, officials said.Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo hospital, north of the capital Colombo after overnight fighting between prisoners from two drug gangs, police said on Monday. Continue reading...
Jul 6, 2026
Rubio threatens to accost Belgium at NATO summit in Trump soccer scandal escalation
Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened to escalate the controversy over President Donald Trump's intervention in a U.S, soccer player's suspension by using an upcoming NATO summit to focus on it.While meeting with Chilean Foreign Minister Francisco Perez Mackenna on Monday, Rubio was asked about Belgium's appeal of FIFA's decision to reverse U.S. player Folarin Balogun's suspension ahead of the World Cup match with Belgium."It was a bad decision," Rubio said of the suspension. "I think it was the right decision to reverse it.""And if you're Belgium, why would you want to play a game and win a match, and then you win this match, and then everyone will argue you didn't really win it because their best player, leading scorer, was not on the pitch during that — during the match?" he continued. "You want the other side to be at its best so that your victory is not tainted in that way."The U.S. Secretary of State went on to claim that Belgium might be "trying to get an international incident.""I don't know; maybe we'll bring it up at NATO tomorrow when we're there with the Belgians and everybody else," he warned. "But I just hope the match will go on, everyone will be at full strength, and the winner will be the winner."
Jul 6, 2026
‘Living like this is agony’: Cuba suffers third nationwide blackout in six months
Impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US imposed a blockade in JanuaryCuba on Monday suffered its third nationwide power outage since the start of the year, the state electricity company said.The impoverished island was already struggling to keep the lights on before the US president, Donald Trump, imposed an oil blockade in January, which has depleted the already dwindling supply of fuel for Cuba’s power plants. Continue reading...
Jul 6, 2026
Trump 'preference' for 'white people' costs him in blistering court ruling
A federal judge blocked part of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, citing the president's own "preference" for white immigrants.U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio issued the ruling Monday, blocking three U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services policies that had frozen green card and work permit applications for people from seven countries."This general hostility to immigration contrasts with an apparent interest in and preference for the migration of white people," Marbley wrote. "Aside from a stated desire for more Scandinavian immigration, President Trump has sought to welcome white South Africans."From October 2025 through May 2026, the ruling notes, 6,665 of the 6,668 refugees admitted to the U.S. were from South Africa.At a December 2025 rally in Pennsylvania, Trump asked: "Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few?... Send us some nice people.""In sum, both the President and the Vice President have publicly and repeatedly expressed outright hostility toward immigrants, both before and after the 2024 presidential election," the judge wrote, finding the pattern impossible to ignore."Their ire appears focused on immigrants from countries in the Caribbean, South America, Africa, and Asia," he added.Trump has claimed that white South African farmers face a "genocide" and made their plight a priority. "Farmers are being killed," he told PBS in May 2025. "They happen to be white."The administration has since proposed raising the U.S. refugee cap to 17,500 — with the additional 10,000 slots reserved exclusively for white Afrikaners."We are processing resettlement cases for white Afrikaners at a record pace," Sharif Aly, president of the International Refugee Assistance Project, told Democracy Now!. "This program has never been a fast program, and it's being expedited for just this one population."Marbley also cited Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's dissent in a recent immigration case, calling Trump's statements about certain countries "repellent and racially inflected" — including his claim that immigrants from those nations are "poisoning the blood" of the United States.The ruling is the 11th of its kind. At the hearing, the government told the judge it expected to lose — and spent its argument focused only on how narrow the remedy should be.
Jul 4, 2026
Archaeologists uncover ancient Byzantine city in Egypt’s western desert
Well-preserved fourth-century quarters reveal details of daily life, urban development and economic activitiesArchaeologists in Egypt have uncovered a well-preserved Byzantine-era city in the western desert.The fourth-century quarters had residential and religious structures, including a basilica-style church in the Dakhla oasis. Archaeologists also found coins, pottery fragments and tools. Continue reading...
Jul 4, 2026
‘The situation is terrible’: aid workers on life in Sudanese city pummelled by drone strikes
El Obeid becomes key battleground in war between Sudan’s armed forces and their paramilitary enemies, the RSFFatima has lost count of the number of drone attacks on the besieged city of El Obeid in Sudan, but said the attacks this past weekend were the most violent so far.The drones hit schools and fuel stations, killing more than 20 people, including students, she said. “Over the past few months, seeing 40 or 45 drones is the norm. You can literally count them,” said the aid volunteer, whose name has been changed for fear of retribution. Continue reading...
Jul 4, 2026
Conservative ex-judge warns Americans face 'stark' choice in the age of Trump
A conservative former judge warned Americans that they're facing a stark and important choice right now.In a July 4 appearance on MS NOW, ex-judge Michael Luttig said Trump is forcing Americans to decide what kind of country they want for the next 250 years. Trump "could not have presented the choice any more starkly," Luttig added."As we celebrate our founding today once again, these are the times in America that try men's souls, and Americans must decide today, this year, what America they want," Luttig said, evoking a quote by Thomas Paine. "What America they want and what America they do not want for the next 250 years."While Luttig stressed how critical the decision is, he struck an optimistic tone about the path that Americans seem to be choosing. He noted, "Only as of late, I have seen hope in the American people that they are beginning to rise up and reject this government and this president and all that he and it represent."Luttig cautioned that Trump fits the description of the kind of monarch that the founding Americans rejected through the 27 grievances in the Declaration of Independence. According to Luttig, "The American people, I believe, have finally come to their senses in a way and understood what vision of America this president and the current government has, and Americans don't want that."He added that no matter what Americans choose, "it's the decision of the American people that will prevail," and "If we have the courage in our breasts and the hope in our hearts that our founders had 250 years ago, when they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to create this country, we will long endure."
Jul 3, 2026
Trump humiliates supporters by killing deal he touted as his 'best': Ex-GOP operative
An ex-GOP operative flagged how Trump is killing what he once touted as his "best" deal at the expense of his supporters.During an episode of The Bulwark Podcast, Tim Miller described Trump's plans concerning the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Trump negotiated and boasted about during his first term."The Trump administration decided not to renew the USMCA," Miller noted. "Which is pretty interesting because Donald Trump said that was the best agreement we've ever made, the best trade deal of all time."While "it's strange that they would not renew the best trade deal of all time," Miller explained, "They're now going to do yearly reviews where Trump shakes down the leaders of Mexico and Canada...not great."According to Miller, Trump will ditch the USMCA in favor of an arrangement where the U.S. conducts annual reviews of trade with Mexico and Canada. He predicted that the new arrangement would likely hurt American farmers, who supported Trump."The farmers, it's one hit after another for the farmers, who, it seems like, every Trump policy is like it's almost like an elaborate plot to see how much he can p— off the farmers and still run up the numbers in rural America," Miller said.Miller's guest on the show, New Yorker writer Susan Glasser, agreed."As far as the farmers go, Donald Trump loves to provide evidence that his ride or die supporters will be there no matter how much he humiliates them," Glasser said. "No matter how much he backs away from policies that would support him, no matter how much he fails to deliver the things that he said he would deliver. That to Trump, that's the ultimate sort of political own, and he loves that move."
Jul 3, 2026
Trump's latest fighter jet sales tease alarms WSJ critics: 'Should be a nonstarter'
The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board is alarmed by President Donald Trump's hints he'll give F-35 fighter jets to the Turkish government — which, despite being a NATO ally on paper, has disconcerting ties to Russia.This comes after Trump recently said that Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a notorious autocrat who has cracked down on freedom in his country, “is a strong member of NATO. I’m going to probably do something that’s going to make him very happy. He’s a respected man, a respected leader, and he’s been a friend of mine.”"America’s premier fighter jet should be a nonstarter for Ankara as long as it owns an S-400 missile-defense system," wrote the editorial board. Trump initially kicked Turkey out of the F-35 program in his first term, the board noted, when it bought that Russian missile system in the first place in 2019, having "offered Patriot defenses to Turkey and warned Ankara multiple times."That was the right idea in the first place, the board argued, and it makes no sense to reverse it now."Allowing the two systems to work together would amount to letting Vladimir Putin conduct target practice on the free world’s pilots," noted the board, because it would give Putin valuable intelligence about how the F-35 program works. Worse yet, "The stakes of cracking the F-35’s tech are especially acute given Russia is working with China and Iran in a larger competition with the U.S."Moreover, the board wrote, there is the soft power issue to think about: caving to Turkey and letting them have American tech at the same time they use Russian tech will "fuel European cynicism that Mr. Trump cares less about European defense spending than he does about pleasing the illiberal strongmen he views as pals" — which comes at a moment Trump has already enraged Europe with his efforts to bully Denmark into handing over Greenland.If Trump truly values "hard power and real deterrence," as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently said in a speech, a key part of that is "not handing the alliance’s prime adversary a potential cheat code on the West’s best military aircraft technology," the board concluded.
Jul 2, 2026
Ex-GOP operative warns of 'looming war' as Trump blusters for 'peace that does not exist'
A former Republican operative warned that Trump not only lost the Iran war but set in motion a larger conflict.Steve Schmidt argued in an episode of The Warning podcast that Trump lost the war with Iran because he failed to achieve any of his aims. However, Schmidt added that the consequence will be more conflicts breaking out. "We should appreciate that there are consequences for great powers losing wars," Schmidt said. "And in the manner that Trump has lost this war, and the lies that he told about a peace that does not exist, we should all understand that what he has set in motion is cataclysm, a larger war, a looming war, a building crisis, a deadly one."Although Schmidt stopped short of predicting where another war or conflict will take place, he warned that conflicts will carry on after the Iran campaign, which will "be Donald Trump's legacy of ruination," Schmidt added. "In part, it will be the lost wars and the next wars."Schmidt pointed to Iraq and likened Trump's assertion about winning the Iran war to George W. Bush standing below a banner that read "Mission Accomplished.""And Iraq today is a fragile democracy," Schmidt said. "We have lost a war to Iran, and what's amazing about the tolerance of the American people for Donald Trump is that he's hung his 'Mission Accomplished' banner on his forehead at least 500 times over and over."Even though "Trump tells you his lost war is over, the fighting rages on," Schmidt said. "The American people, stupefied, somehow hypnotized, numbed, as if they had a cattle prod zap them in their frontal lobes, seem detached."
