Top World News
Jul 8, 2026
'Flailing' Trump's latest humiliation proves he's 'in over his head': war expert
A national security expert tore into President Donald Trump's latest responses to questions about the Iran war and an embattled ceasefire.In a Wednesday piece for The Atlantic, national security scholar Tom Nichols reacted to Trump's comments in the wake of renewed hostilities with Iran. Trump was asked on Wednesday morning whether the memorandum of understanding with Iran was dead."That's a very interesting question," Trump responded, according to Nichols. "To me, I think it's over. I don't wanna deal with them anymore. They're scum, you know what scum is? They're scum." However, Trump also said on Wednesday that he plans to "give them a little warning" about attacks and "we'll see how it all works out." Trump is "unable to give sensible answers to questions about the renewed hostilities," Nichols noted, arguing that Trump doesn't know what to do and is waiting to see how Iran will respond to more strikes."This is not the approach of a president who's running a war," Nichols wrote. "This is the flailing of a man who's in over his head and is reacting to events, rather than guiding them."Nichols also pointed out how Trump's recent comments contrasted with the praise he gave Iranian leaders last month, when he called them "very rational people," "strong people, smart people," and "nice to deal with." He also pointed out Trump's recent gaffes, like confusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Russian President Vladimir Putin and saying "Tic Tac" when he meant "TikTok."Trump has also floated two "terrible ideas," Nichols added, referring to a possible invasion of Iranian territory and a "campaign of probable war crimes."
Jul 8, 2026
Cost of Trump's war exceeds $100 billion — and there's no plan to pay the bill: analysis
A new analysis estimated that President Donald Trump racked up a $103 billion bill for the Iran war in 120 days.According to an analysis by Popular Information, the Trump administration has no plan to pay for the Iran war, and neither do congressional Republicans.The analysis found that over four months, the U.S. spent more than $103 billion on the war in Iran, based on budgetary costs such as operations, personnel, and matériel. It also noted that Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the House Appropriations Committee last week that the U.S. has spent $30 billion on the war.According to Popular Information, expenses for weapons such as missiles, interceptors, and bombs total about $46.7 billion, making it the highest cost. The other major expenses included operations such as mobilization, administration, and combat, which cost $28.5 billion, and losses such as damage or destruction of military assets, which cost $20.3 billion, per the analysis."The Trump administration has offered Congress lowball war cost estimates," Popular Information noted. In May, Pentagon comptroller Jay Hurst and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified that the war cost only $29 billion. In April, the estimate was $25 billion.The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are declining to pay for the war costs through tax increases or spending cuts, according to Popular Information, which included a quote from House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) saying, "War is never paid for when you fight it."However, taxes were levied to pay for the costs of World Wars I and II, Popular Information noted.
Jul 8, 2026
US charges Indian criminal gang leader with organising murder of Canadian Sikh activist
Lawrence Bishnoi, who is in prison in India, is accused of orchestrating assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023US and Canadian authorities say they have “dismantled” the leadership of a notorious Indian criminal group, charging dozens of operatives who have “inflicted pain and cruelty on people, victims around the globe”, including a high-profile murder in Canada that strained diplomatic relations between Canada and India.At a press conference on Tuesday, members of the FBI and Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said as part of Operation Hard Ball – a multiyear federal investigation into murder-for-hire plots, shootings, extortion and drug trafficking – they had charged 37 people, some of whom were already in custody. Authorities are still searching for seven fugitives in the US, two in India and one in Europe. Continue reading...
Jul 8, 2026
'Sir, we love you': Trump goes off script with meandering self-praise at NATO conference
Amid reports that diplomats and world leaders are beside themselves over Donald Trump’s threats at the NATO conference in Turkey, the president attempted Wednesday to spin the meeting as a lovefest.Sound raspy and looking tired, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, looking over his shoulder, the president, as is his custom, departed from his prepared notes to claim that he is quite the popular guy with his counterparts.“They respect us as a country," Trump said. "They didn't respect us two years ago. They laughed at us. NATO laughed at us, everybody laughed at us. They don't laugh anymore.” Trump then added an odd remark.“And they're, you know, just again, if you could have seen the respect and the love in the room and it's love really for the country, for our country," Trump said. "I don't want to say me because you'll say, oh, he's so conceited. He's such a conceited person. But they do.”“I mean, you know, they, like the job I'm doing,” he continued. “They said, ‘We love, sir, we love you.’ These are grown people saying that. Isn't that nice?”“Maybe, I don't know, maybe they're trying to get to me. And, in a way they did, because there was tremendous unity in that room,” he asserted. - YouTube youtu.be
Jul 8, 2026
Trump ditches Qatari jet as experts raise equipment concerns
President Donald Trump will fly his aging Air Force One out of Turkey, ditching the Qatari-gifted jet he calls "the world's most luxurious plane," a decision experts suggest was made based on security equipment concerns. Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday that he'd fly the old plane from Turkey to the UK — sending the new jet ahead separately so U.S. troops could tour it. "For old time's sake," he wrote.Andrew Feinberg, White House correspondent for The Independent, wrote on X, posited another reason for the switch. "The most likely reason for this is that the 'new' ex-Qatari jet doesn't have the self-defense capabilities needed when flying from Turkey while in a shooting war with Iran," Feinberg wrote. "The actual VC-25 aircraft does have those capabilities."Frank Kendall, who served as Air Force secretary under President Joe Biden, according to MS NOW, also raised concerns about safety."The biggest thing — and I can't say a lot about it because of classification — will be the degree to which it has command and control capability on the aircraft," Kendall said.The post went live hours after Trump declared the Iran ceasefire was "over" at the NATO summit in Ankara, where he also told reporters the U.S. would "very probably hit" Iran again that night. According to US Central Command, the two countries had been trading live fire since Tuesday, when Iran attacked three commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. hit more than 80 Iranian targets in response.The War Zone has confirmed the old plane — in service since 1990 — carries missile defense systems, radar jammers, and shielding against the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear blast. Whether the new Qatari jet has any of that remains classified and unconfirmed, the outlet reported.The Air Force said only that its team "made trades on some of the less commonly used mission sets."When The War Zone asked Jason Lambert, president of L3Harris's Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance division — the contractor that built the new plane — whether it was hardened against a nuclear blast and had full command-and-control capability, he said: "That's one I'll have to direct you back to the Air Force.""Americans deserve answers on how the administration has decided to spend their taxpayer dollars, and ignore real national security concerns, in the rushed VC-25B Bridge aircraft retrofit program … all in service of delivering President Trump a pretty, fancy plane for his personal enjoyment," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and 12 Senate Democratic colleagues wrote in a letter Tuesday demanding answers and calling the program a national security risk."Spitballing here, but perhaps one reason it doesn't have those capabilities is because Trump wants to keep it if he leaves office," conservative attorney George Conway wrote on X, quoting Feinberg. Trump has said he plans to donate the jet to his presidential library.To fund the conversion, the Air Force diverted money from the Sentinel nuclear missile program, according to the senators' letter.
Jul 8, 2026
Pakistan locates wreckage of Boeing 737 cargo plane that went missing off coast
Early flight data shows K2 Airways plane crashed into sea with five crew on board south-west of KarachiPakistan has located the wreckage of a Boeing cargo plane, the country’s airports authority said, adding that rescuers were searching for the five crew members on board when the aircraft went missing.The plane was approaching Karachi from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates when radar showed it “rapidly descending” on Tuesday evening after reporting a “navigational system issue”, according to the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA). Continue reading...
Jul 8, 2026
'Living in some other century': Ex-diplomat blasts Trump's wild claims at NATO summit
A former U.S. diplomat went off on President Donald Trump and the way he's dealing with American NATO allies.During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday, Nick Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and China, discussed Trump's relationship with NATO and how he ignores what concerns them the most, which is the threat of Russia."NATO is important for the United States, and the threat now is Putin and Russia," Burns said. "So when the president says somehow the Atlantic Ocean is going to protect us in the 21st century from Russia, he's just badly mistaken."Burns was responding to comments made on Tuesday by Trump in which he said he wasn't concerned about the threat of Russia because “we have a thing called the ocean in between us.""He's living in some other century," Burns said, reacting to Trump's comments. "But not the century we're living in."CNN anchor Erin Burnett noted "how easy it is to get drones off the coast" and how the world has seen warfare change."The world has changed dramatically," Burnett said. "So has warfare even in recent months. We've seen that."Burns also talked about how Trump doesn't talk about how European NATO countries have increased spending on their military infrastructure, and in dealing with NATO, "it's as if he's talking about a Europe of three or four or five years ago, not the Europe of today."However, when speaking about Trump's feuds and bickering with NATO leaders like the Italian prime minister, Burns suggested Trump should be like the American presidents of the previous century."You catalog the abusive comments he's made, the sarcastic comments, the critical comments personally about a number of NATO leaders; we've never had an American president do that," Burns said. "Can you imagine Truman or Eisenhower or John F. Kennedy or Ronald Reagan criticizing, in personal terms, the Italian prime minister, the French president, the German chancellor, the British prime minister?"
Jul 7, 2026
'Broken for good': New Iran strikes spark concerns about fragile economy for analyst
The U.S. military announced Tuesday it had launched "powerful strikes" against Iran — something an analyst signaled could be a sign of what repercussions are to come.CNN White House reporter Adam Cancryn told CNN anchor Jake Tapper and senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes during a live report that a military official said these attacks were meant as "punishment" after Iran attacked three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Cancryn warned that the retaliation could have a direct impact on Americans."At least in the immediate term here, it means more uncertainty when it comes to energy prices," Cancryn said. "So, we've already seen, as a result of these economic sanctions, sanctions being now reimposed, the global oil prices, and markets going up once again. The real risk here again is how the Iranians respond, whether they end up closing the Strait of Hormuz again, which, over the last few months, really pushed the price of oil and the price of gas at the pump up."The attacks also put the current ceasefire into further question while Trump was in Turkey, which borders Iran, for a NATO summit where world leaders were planning to discuss the Strait of Hormuz and the ongoing conflict."The concern here is that the ceasefire that we've had these last few weeks is maybe not as solid as people hoped it would be, that it's fragile, it could be broken. It could be broken for good," he added. "That's the real concern here that we end up in this standoff when it comes to the shipment of oil through that Strait."
Jul 7, 2026
French prosecutors investigate racist abuse of Kylian Mbappé by Paraguayan senator
Celeste Amarilla could face charges after French Football Federation complains about social media posts over World Cup matchProsecutors in France have opened an investigation into the racist attack on Kylian Mbappé by a Paraguayan senator, with officials weighing whether to demand that the senator be charged with aggravated public insult or incitement to hatred or violence.The Paris prosecutor’s office told the Guardian on Tuesday it had launched the inquiry after the French Football Federation (FFF) filed a complaint with the national unit for combating online hate. Continue reading...
Jul 7, 2026
A rock star welcome and human rights protests to greet India’s prime minister Narendra Modi in Australia
Amnesty International says Albanese has opportunity to ‘reaffirm mutual commitment’ to rule of law as thousands in diaspora expected at stadium eventFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to Australia in three years has sparked calls for the federal government to raise human rights concerns, as excitement builds within the nation’s Indian diaspora.Modi’s visit begins on Wednesday evening and marks his third since becoming prime minister. It will see him return to Melbourne after more than a decade, with a stadium event expected to attract more than 20,000 people. 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 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 11, 2026
China Evacuates Over 1 Million As Typhoon Bavi Nears
