Top World News

National security experts were concerned that President Donald Trump has ignored important briefings and instead prefers to watch videos of explosions from the Iran war, according to an analyst on Thursday. Salon's Chauncey DeVega described how Trump has started to treat the war — which has killed 13 American troops and nearly 1,500 Iranians — as entertainment. In the past, presidents have sought information from daily security briefings. Trump, however, has not followed this method. "As the war progresses, Trump is reportedly being shown daily compilation videos of 'stuff blowing up' — two-minute highlight reels of death and destruction, curated to hold his attention due to his famously short attention span," DeVega wrote. This has impacted how he views the war and what comes next. "Trump’s reliance on the videos risks creating an echo chamber effect where he is not getting the best advice," DeVega wrote. "Pushing back against the reports, the administration claims the president receives advice throughout the day from senior military leadership, the intelligence community, diplomats and foreign leaders. He also watches the news. But this does not appear to be reflected in the planning and execution of the war, or its long-term strategic implications for American power and global stability."NBC News reported that these montages have added to the president's "increasing frustration" with how the media covers the war and skewed his views. "Trump has pointed to the success depicted in the daily videos to privately question why his administration can’t better influence the public narrative, asking aides why the news media doesn’t emphasize what he’s seeing, one of the current U.S. officials and the former U.S. official said," according to NBC News. Steven Cash, the executive director of the nonprofit the Steady State, an organization of more than 360 former national security and diplomacy experts promoting American democracy, told DeVega that Americans expect the president to listen to a range of expert voices to guide military actions. "This does not appear to be what is happening," DeVega wrote. "Instead, the process has been reduced to a closed circle of advisers reinforcing Trump’s instincts while screens display short, dramatic clips of explosions and destruction. War, Cash observed, 'is not a spectacle, and it is certainly not a form of entertainment. Treating it that way is both obscene and dangerous.'"Cash said the repercussions have been clear. "The president has publicly suggested that basic strategic realities — such as the central importance of the Strait of Hormuz to the global economy — were somehow overlooked by ‘the experts,'" Cash said. "That is simply not true. These are among the most well-established facts in international security. When a president appears unaware of such fundamentals, it raises serious concerns about whether he is receiving — or is willing to absorb — the information he needs."

MAGA financial pundit Eric Bolling revealed that President Donald Trump's Wednesday night address to the nation had likely "triggered" a 60-cent spike in gas prices.During a Thursday interview on the War Room podcast, Bolling said he had been giving MAGA influencer Steve Bannon updates on the oil market as Trump was speaking about the war in Iran.Bolling noted that oil was trading at "$98 a barrel" before Trump started speaking."It really didn't move very much during the speech. I kept updating you. When he talked about the part where he said, we're going to send them back to the Stone Ages, I think that triggered something because that's really where it started to tick up to $99 a barrel, $100 a barrel," he recalled. "When he finished, I think traders were hoping to hear some sort of legitimate off-ramp, and it just spiked 101, 101, 102, 103, 105, 107, 108 or so.""This morning I got up, Steve, and I was just shocked. $11, $12 a barrel, that's $13, $14 a barrel higher," he said. "Unfortunately, that turns into about a 60, 70 cent move up on the pump price just on the overnight alone, what it did overnight."

Donald Trump has tainted his own second term in the Oval Office with one move this year, a Nobel Prize winner has warned. Paul Krugman believes the longer-term effects of the war with Iran will not just undermine the president's decision-making in future, but that his attitude toward NATO members and allied nations has destroyed what little legacy the president could cling to. Speaking in a video uploaded to his Substack, the award-winning economist noted the problem with the Iran war is not just the war itself, but the ongoing economic impact and erosion of relations with the United States' allies. "So this is going to be really bad," Krugman said. "But anyway, it was radically disappointing even to people who are, you know, the markets and a lot of people in the world were actually hoping that the United States would give up. "I mean, it’ll be terrible. We really don’t want a medievalist theocracy empowered. But since this is heading nowhere except for, again, massive war crimes, better to end it. But we’re not getting that."We have Trump lecturing the world and saying, why are you cowards? Why don’t you come in and help us in this ill-conceived, disastrous war that we started without checking with you? "But the reality is that the world is looking and saying, my God, what is wrong with America? They may still have a lot of bombs — although not as many as we started with — but it’s not a country anybody can trust for anything. And that, even more than the price of oil, is going to be the legacy of this war."Krugman went on to suggest that Trump had made the situation with Iran worse than before the strikes were approved. He wrote, "One of the moments that really struck me in the speech was him declaring that the whole world was extremely impressed by what happened. He said, 'The whole world is watching and they can't believe the power, strength, and brilliance. They just can't believe what they're seeing. The world can't believe what it's seeing.'"What it’s seeing is that the world’s greatest military power took on a fourth-rate power. Again, as I said the other day, Iran’s military budget is a rounding error in our military budget. And we lost. For all practical purposes, we’ve left ourselves in a much weaker position and Iran in a stronger position than it was before."

Pro-MAGA Real America's Voice host Gina Loudon revealed that she was underwhelmed by President Donald Trump's Wednesday night address to the nation about the war in Iran.During a Thursday morning segment, Loudon reflected on the speech with co-hosts David Brody and Terrence Bates."He basically said that everything is on track and that completion of military objectives," Bates noted. "Soon, kind of in parentheses, two to three weeks is the number he floated.""But I don't know," he remarked. "I still have questions, Dr. Gina. Did you get all the questions last night that you wanted answered?""Well, since, as David Brody pointed out this morning, I believe in our production call, he never said the word ground troops at all," Loudon replied. "Didn't address. No comment. So that meant that a lot of America went, oh, okay, well, we're not going to, we're not going to insert any ground troops. That's great. But is that what that meant? I don't know the answer to that.""And I was my whole time, this whole time, like, I literally was like, that's it?" she complained. "I don't know about anybody else. That's what I was thinking. I was like, that's what, wait, huh? I didn't understand."For his part, Brody called on the "forever war crowd" to calm down."And I get it. Don't get me wrong," he said. "I understand the concerns. But we're talking 32 days as opposed to 19 years in Vietnam. So let's just settle it down here and let's see where we go."Loudon fired back: "Yeah, well, some of us are, you know, thinking historically, and we're a little older and wiser, and we just want to have we want to have — we want to be the accountability partner for the president that we love."

Football federation president on the run with wife and sonConviction in absentia of wide-ranging corruption chargesAuthorities in Congo-Brazzaville have applied to Interpol for an international arrest warrant against Jean-Guy Blaise Mayolas, the president of the country’s football federation, Fecofoot, after he was convicted of embezzling $1.1m in Fifa funds.Mayolas is on the run with his wife and son after they were all sentenced to life imprisonment this month for embezzling funds provided by world football’s governing body as part of its Covid-19 relief plan in February 2021. As the Guardian revealed last year, that included almost $500,000 earmarked for the Congo women’s team. Continue reading...

Abnormally strong jet stream triggers deluge in Middle East, while north Africa braces for 60-80mph gustsAn unusual weather pattern unleashed severe thunderstorms across parts of the Middle East last week, battering countries including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Arabian peninsula – typically dominated by arid desert climates – received up to 150mm of rain in just a few days.The deluge was caused by an abnormally strong jet stream, which helped a deep area of low pressure to develop north of Saudi Arabia. This, in turn, drew moist tropical air from the Indian Ocean and triggered intense storms. Continue reading...

At least 77 people killed in anti-corruption youth uprising in September, which began over a brief social media banNepal’s former prime minister KP Sharma Oli was arrested early on Saturday morning over his alleged role in the deaths of dozens of people who took part in the gen Z protest that toppled his government last year.Police detained the three-time former prime minister at his residence in the capital Kathmandu, and also arrested his former home affairs minister Ramesh Lekhak. Continue reading...

Balendra Shah, 35, is a symbol of change in country whose government was toppled last year in youth-led uprisingNepal’s rapper turned politician Balendra Shah, who is about to be sworn in as prime minister, has issued his first post-election message in the form of a rap urging unity.Hours before the release he swore an oath as a newly elected lawmaker, and he is due to become the Himalayan republic’s new prime minister on Friday. Continue reading...