Top World News

Two of the top GOP leaders issued a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump on Saturday after the president sent "the wrong signal" to his Russian counterpart, according to a new report. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) issued a joint statement in which they bashed Trump's decision to remove 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, the Washington Examiner reported. Trump made the decision after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticized Trump's negotiations with the Iranian regime. “The reality remains that even as allies move toward spending 5% of GDP on defense, translating that investment into the military capability needed to assume primary responsibility for conventional deterrence will take time,” the joint statement reads in part. “Prematurely reducing America’s forward presence in Europe before those capabilities are fully realized risks undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin.”Instead of withdrawing the troops entirely, the two Republicans urged Trump to send them eastward, closer to the border with Russia, and to "coordinate with Congress," according to the report.

President Donald Trump has been briefed by “several senior administration officials” that Iran is “keenly aware” of the leverage it holds over the president as the conflict drags on, Zeteo reported on Friday.Trump has claimed that his administration holds “all the cards” as peace talks between Washington and Tehran continue to stall, that Iran’s government was in a “state of collapse,” and that he was in no rush to reach a peace deal. However, according to two administration officials and two other inside sources, classified intelligence assessments that Trump has been briefed on suggest the opposite.“In recent weeks, US officials have privately discussed classified intelligence assessments suggesting that the government in Tehran isn’t close to breaking, even after two months of war and a sustained economic assault, two administration officials and two other sources briefed on the matter tell us,” according to Zeteo. “Administration officials, citing US intel, have also warned that senior Iranian officials are keenly aware that if the war drags on much longer, it could further damage Trump and the Republican Party’s chances at the polls in November.”One senior administration official, speaking with Zeteo on the condition of anonymity, compared the leverage Iran had over Trump with the leverage Iran had over former President Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was tanked in large part due to the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.The Iran hostage crisis coincided with the 1979 Iranian revolution, when Iranians overthrew U.S.-backed leader Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whose rule had been reinforced by a 1953 U.S.-backed coup following Iran’s move to nationalize its oil industry and challenge Western oil interests.Carter authorized a rescue operation that ultimately failed and resulted in the deaths of eight American service members and one Iranian civilian, an incident many historians have cited in his landslide loss against former President Ronald Reagan in 1980.“They know they can Carter him,” the senior administration official told Zeteo.Two other sources told Zeteo that “several senior administration officials” have tried to “nudge” Trump into “pulling the plug on the war,” the outlet reported.“This thing needs to end,” a White House official told Zeteo, who argued that Trump “needs to understand” that Iran “has its own cards” — chief among them being the 2026 midterm elections.

Strongest tornado hits Mineral Wells, Texas, where disaster was declared. Elsewhere, extreme rain inundates ChinaSpring is the season for severe thunderstorms across the central US, and the start of this week was a particularly active period for the region. A favourable weather pattern fuelled intense thunderstorms on Monday through Wednesday, bringing strong winds, very large hail and strong tornadoes.Eight tornadoes were reported on Monday, including an EF2 tornado that ripped through the town of Sycamore, Kansas. On Tuesday, a more widespread event tore across the mid-west, most notably as a severe hailstorm moved through Springfield, Missouri. Continue reading...

Fox News host Jesse Watters on Thursday revealed the "questionable quip" that got him pulled away from Queen Camilla during the recent state visit, according to a new report. Watters, who co-hosts "The Five," said during Thursday's broadcast that he chatted up the Queen about her visit to Washington, D.C., and made a joke that the royal staff found distasteful enough to pull him away from the Queen, HuffPost reported. Watters is known for making outlandish statements, but the "questionable quip" that he uttered in front of the Queen also seemed to embarrass him, according to the report. "So we're sitting down, and there's the Queen, and I go, 'How was the beehive?'" Watters recounted the conversation. "And she says, 'I'm glad nobody was stung.' And I said, 'You know what they say here in D.C., if the beestings won't get you, then the guns will." "You said that?" other co-hosts chimed in simultaneously. "And then this woman just starts pulling me away from the Queen," Watters continued, laughing. HILARIOUS: Jesse Watters reveals he dropped a “gun violence” joke on Queen Camilla during the White House Royal State Dinner — and got yanked away mid-conversation.“The King had no idea who I was… So we go down, and there’s the queen. And I said, ‘Well, how was the beehive?’… pic.twitter.com/S45QvNTlLm— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) April 30, 2026

President Donald Trump took another slap at Germany's leader over his criticism earlier this week of the U.S. war against Iran.German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faulted the 79-year-old president for launching the war without an apparent exit strategy, saying the U.S. has been "humiliated" by Iranian leadership, and Trump lobbed another social media attack after threatening to reduce American troops stationed in Germany."The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!)," Trump posted on Truth Social, "and fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place! President DJT."Trump has frequently railed against NATO allies for refusing to assist in the Iran war he authorized at the end of February, and he responded to Merz's criticism by threatening to draw down the military forces that have been stationed in Germany since the start of the Cold War.“The United States is studying and reviewing the possible reduction of Troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time,” Trump said in a social media post.

President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on Iran by predicting that the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will soon cause catastrophic damage to Tehran's oil infrastructure, but energy experts and analysts widely dispute these claims as unrealistic.Trump told reporters at the White House last Thursday: "If they don't get their oil moving, their whole oil infrastructure is going to explode." During a Fox News appearance Sunday, he escalated the rhetoric, stating that Iranian oil pipelines "both mechanically and in the earth" would "explode from within" if exports don't resume soon. "They say they only have about three days left before that happens. And when it explodes, you can never rebuild it the way it was," Trump said.However, energy scholars and industry analysts strongly challenge these predictions, reported the Washington Post. Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East Program at the Defense Priorities think tank, stated flatly: "That is not how it works. Nothing is going to self destruct." Mark Finley, a fellow in energy and global oil at Rice University's Baker Institute, countered that "Iran has proven it knows how to keep its system operating," noting that abundant empty tankers and domestic refining networks provide viable alternatives to strait exports.Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy concluded in a Tuesday analysis that even if Iran exhausts storage capacity, it "will not cause catastrophic, or even very serious, damage" to its oil industry. While shut-in operations — where water and gas contaminate reservoirs — can cause long-term damage, explosions are not a known consequence.Shipping data from TankerTrackers.com shows approximately 45 million barrels of storage capacity exists in empty tankers within the blockade perimeter, equivalent to six weeks of Iran's usual export production. Iran also maintains millions of barrels in inland storage capacity, according to analytics firm Kpler.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed Monday that Iranian production was already slowing, writing on X: "Iran's creaking oil industry is starting to shut in production thanks to the U.S. BLOCKADE." A Treasury Department spokesperson stated that Kharg Island, Iran's primary export hub, was approaching storage capacity at a cost of roughly $170 million daily in lost revenue.Despite expert skepticism, Trump's predictions represent the latest in a series of shifting administration claims about ending the conflict. As gas prices have surged to $4.23 per gallon from under $3 before the February war's onset, Americans face mounting economic pressures from the ongoing Strait of Hormuz closure.

Jitu Munda says he was refused access to money in case highlighting ‘lack of humanity’ in Indian bureaucracyThe sight of a man bringing the remains of his dead sister to a bank in India after officials had refused to let him withdraw money without proof of her death has caused shock in India.Jitu Munda, 52, from the Indian state of Odisha, was captured on video carrying the remains of his recently deceased sister through the streets of Keonjhar and placing them outside the local bank. Continue reading...

A Florida Democratic lawmaker interrupted state House proceedings in protest to the approval of a redistricting map that could give the GOP four congressional seats. "You're destroying our democracy," state Rep. Angie Nixon, who's also running for Senate, could be heard in videos yelling into a bullhorn on the Florida House floor. "This is a violation of the Constitution! It is!"The GOP-controlled Florida Legislature approved Gov. Ron DeSantis' map to redistrict the Sunshine State. The move is the latest counterattack in the redistricting wars, after the Democrats won a battle in Virginia to persuade voters to approve a gerrymandered map that waters down Republican power there.Although the Florida House speaker tried to talk over Nixon's shouting and move forward, Nixon continued. "This is out of order," she kept repeating. Nixon defended her actions in a Facebook post on Wednesday."I'm so upset because I had to disrupt the House proceedings," Nixon said. "They were trying to push through illegally drawn maps that diminish representation in the Black community."She added that it threatens the representation of Florida's Latino and Jewish communities as well. “This is a slap in the face of voters everywhere in our state," Nixon said. "Republicans are only doing this so that they can look out for Donald Trump and allow him to have unfettered power."