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World leaders are not impressed with President Donald Trump's claim that welcoming Canada into partnership constitutes a "hostile act," the Washington Post reported Thursday.Trump made this claim in North Carolina Wednesday in response to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's proposal to make Canada the European Union's first-ever "associate member." "If it's a good intention, that's fine," Trump said. "If it's a bad intention, we'll put very heavy tariffs on Europe."Now leaders from up north and across the pond are saying they don't intend to be influenced by Trump or the United States. Benjamin Haddad, France’s European affairs minister, said on French television Thursday that the U.S. has no veto over decisions made by the 27-nation bloc, according to the Post.“It is not up to a foreign power, not the United States or anyone else, to choose the geopolitical direction of the Europeans,” he said on Public Sénat. “Once again, we have a relationship ⁠with Canada, and we are fully entitled to seek to deepen it.”European Union Commission spokesman Olof Gill said the E.U. leader made clear that “the proposed strengthening of our partnership with Canada is not against anyone else, but for our common strength.”Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, set to address European lawmakers on Thursday, described a partnership between his country and the European Union as "natural."According to the Post, he said both wanted “a deeper partnership that reinforces our mutual sovereignty to create more opportunities and prosperity for our peoples.”

Palestinian-American human rights lawyer and Rutgers University professor Noura Erakat was arrested and charged with trespassing Tuesday night after speaking out against Palm Beach County's billion-dollar investment in Israel Bonds during a public budget hearing.According to The Guardian, Erakat, who teaches Africana studies at Rutgers and sits on the editorial committee of the Journal for Palestine Studies, was detained by deputies in an elevator at the county government building in West Palm Beach. She remained in custody overnight and was released the following morning after paying bond.Dozens of other attendees who'd shown up to oppose the investment were also removed from the meeting, with some carrying signs reading messages like "Fund Housing, Not Genocide."Palm Beach County's stake in Israel Bonds climbed to roughly $1 billion earlier this year, a jump largely attributed to a purchase exceeding $350 million approved by Mike Caruso, the county clerk who has since been suspended from office and is separately facing unrelated sexual abuse allegations. A similar fight just unfolded in Miami-Dade, where county commissioners recently loosened investment rules to allow Israel Bonds to make up as much as 5 percent of the portfolio, up from a prior 3 percent cap, though the change stops short of forcing officials to actually purchase additional bonds.Opponents at that earlier meeting also had their microphones cut off or were escorted out.Erakat, born in California to Palestinian immigrant parents and a Berkeley law graduate, has spent years as a prominent critic of Israel's policies toward Palestinians, including addressing the United Nations directly on the issue. Tensions ran high enough during Tuesday's Palm Beach hearing that one commissioner told a protesting retired Air Force member he was "embarrassing the uniform."Palm Beach County deputies have not yet released an arrest report detailing the specific circumstances of Erakat's detention.

Scientists say global heating was a destabilising factor in collapse of 200,000 sq metre glacier in AugustClimate breakdown probably weakened the glacier that collapsed causing catastrophic floods and killing over a thousand people in Nepal and Tibet last month, the first scientific study of the disaster has found.Researchers identified unusually warm conditions before the glacier’s collapse, which sent an avalanche of 110m cubic metres (3.885bn cu ft) of snow and ice into the valley below. This triggered flash floods on an almost unprecedented scale, hitting communities downstream without warning. Continue reading...

A collection of leaked photos showing “major damage” to U.S. assets in the Middle East sparked renewed calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s removal, just as the House narrowly avoided having to consider articles of impeachment against the Trump Cabinet member.“This is major damage to our bases that hasn't been communicated to the American public,” a deployed U.S. service member told CBS News on the condition of anonymity. “We're standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face.”On Tuesday, a CBS News report revealed new photos it had exclusively received from “active service members” showing significant damage to U.S. military assets in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, including a Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft with its entire back half destroyed. The revelations come as Hegseth continues to downplay the damage Iran has managed to inflict on U.S. military assets.“This is why SecDef Hegseth should be impeached and removed from office. What a disaster,” wrote Tom Ryan, an Arizona-based attorney and trial lawyer, in a social media post on X.Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) informed the House Tuesday that he intended to introduce eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth, largely centered around his overseeing of the deeply unpopular — and allegedly, unlawful — U.S. war against Iran. Massie also said he intended to invoke House rules that would force his articles of impeachment to be brought up for consideration within two legislative days.Those plans were foiled, however, after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) abruptly canceled all House votes for Thursday, which would have been the last legislative day before the midterms.Democratic congressional nominee Fred Wellman, a U.S. Army veteran, said the leaked photos were “shocking” given that he had “served at some” of the locations pictured. Ali Abunimah, a prominent author and activist, appeared to mock Hegseth by sarcastically noting, reacting to the photo of the heavily damaged Boeing E-3 Sentry, “That plane looks like it just needs a lick of paint and it will be up and flying in no time.”U.S. Air Force veteran and podcaster Ryan Shead demanded that Congress “Impeach Pete Hegseth immediately,” and Jeremy Johnson, a trucker activist with a substantial online following for his political commentary, warned that the revelations revealing the extent of the damage Iran had inflicted were “just the beginning,” telling his more than 670,000 followers on X to “Buckle up.”That plane looks like it just needs a lick of paint and it will be up and flying in no time https://t.co/daviOPWXMC pic.twitter.com/H3QOwGitVJ— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) September 15, 2026

President Donald Trump's announcement that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop hitting each other's energy sites, a deal he tied to rising diesel prices, unraveled within an hour.Trump made the claim in a Monday post on Truth Social, which also blamed the Russia-Ukraine war, not his own war with Iran, for the global rise in diesel prices.About an hour later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X that no such agreement existed."Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!" Trump wrote, adding that the world's diesel price rise was "mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran.""Ukraine has proposed that its partners secure an agreement with Russia that would stop the destruction of critical infrastructure," Zelenskyy wrote, saying Kyiv would halt its own strikes only if those partners could guarantee that Russia genuinely stopped first."Ukraine is not convinced that Russia is willing to abide by any agreement," he added.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov blamed the turmoil in fuel markets on instability in the Persian Gulf, CNN reported. Speaking before Trump's post, he declined to say whether Russia would halt its strikes on Ukraine's energy grid.Neither Kyiv nor Moscow had confirmed the arrangement, European Pravda reported.Ukraine has struck Russian oil facilities for months. Kyiv calls the refineries legitimate targets because Moscow's oil funds the invasion, Al Jazeera reported.Rising energy costs are threatening Republican reelection chances, Politico reported.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other administration officials have taken to blaming Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian refineries, according to the same report.The claim landed as U.S. diesel hit a record $6.06 a gallon Friday, Al Jazeera reported. A year earlier, the national average was $3.71, and the midterm elections are in November."Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia," Trump told reporters in Ireland on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera.A day earlier, Trump blamed the Iran war for high gas prices and said they would "come tumbling down" after the midterms, MS NOW reported.

President Donald Trump demanded Monday that “countries of the world” reimburse the United States for its deeply unpopular war against Iran, which by some estimates has cost American taxpayers upwards of $100 billion.“Oil is flowing through the Hormuz Strait,” Trump claimed on his social media platform Truth Social, despite traffic through the Strait of Hormuz hitting its lowest levels since May earlier this month. “The Countries of the World, which have been no help to us whatsoever, should, and will, reimburse the United States of America when this SCAM Confligration (sic) is all over. We are doing it much more for others, than we are for ourselves, and we have been for Generations!”Trump’s demand comes as recent developments have threatened a second global shipping chokepoint in the Middle East. Gas prices in the United States continue to climb, with diesel costs reaching their all-time high this month.Apparently aware of the soaring energy prices, Trump, in a follow-up post, expressed his “hope” that voters wouldn’t blame him and would instead blame the past administration.“I hope everyone realizes that price increases throughout America were caused by Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, not by ‘TRUMP,’” he wrote. “Even Oil was higher under Biden than it is right now, and we prevented Iran from having a Nuclear Weapon!”

A bombshell report from The Intercept revealed that United Airlines is resuming shipments of military equipment to Israel aboard civilian passenger flights, sparking several blistering condemnations from prominent figures.United previously used passenger flights to transfer military cargo to Israel between July 2025 and Feb. 27 of this year, just one day before President Donald Trump launched his deeply unpopular war against Iran, according to a new report jointly produced by Movement Research Unit, Palestinian Youth Movement, People’s Embargo for Palestine and the Democratic Socialists of America.The new development, uncovered by The Intercept after reviewing “shipping data” and other documents, appears to be, the outlet noted, a “return to status quo for United.”“We all get on our flights and have to worry about taking too much water in our water bottles, and meanwhile, there are ammunition handling systems and F-35 parts and tank sites that are being transported on these flights, without us actually knowing,” said Movement Research investigator Abdullah, speaking with The Intercept on the condition that only his first name be used “due to the sensitive nature of his work.”Craig Mokhiber, a former senior United Nations official and human rights lawyer, was taken aback by the report’s findings.“United Airlines has not only been shipping weapons components to the Israeli regime during the ongoing genocide in Palestine (itself the crime of complicity under the Genocide Convention), but it has been doing so by hiding them in the cargo of passenger planes filled with unknowing civilians,” Mokhiber wrote in a statement Saturday published on social media. “United Airlines is therefore using its passengers as human shields to unlawfully arm the Israeli regime. These arms onboard constitute an ‘effective contribution to military action’ under [international humanitarian law], violating the Geneva conventions, and potentially making these planes ‘military objectives’ under the law, eroding or stripping their protected status, and putting every passenger at risk.”Others, like journalist and activist Ali Abunimah, took a jab at United by mocking its slogan, “Fly the Friendly Skies,” with his own revised version: “Come Fly the Deadly Skies,” he wrote in a social media post on X.And Natali Morris, journalist and former CBS News reporter, questioned United’s recently increased bag fees given its presumably lucrative contracts to ship military equipment overseas.“If they're taking military contracts to ship weapons to the [Israel Defense Force], why do we have to pay $50 per bag?” she wrote in a social media post on X.When contacted for comment, a United spokesperson told Raw Story that the company had “nothing to share” regarding The Intercept’s report and the underlying allegations.United Airlines has not only been shipping weapons components to the Israeli regime during the ongoing genocide in Palestine (itself the crime of complicity under the Genocide Convention), but it has been doing so by hiding them in the cargo of passenger planes filled with… https://t.co/AXAwlFT7K2— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) September 12, 2026

The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board blasted the latest lecture President Donald Trump offered a global leader after a recent attack. Russia recently bombed a passenger train in Ukraine along the Polish border, which is a main travel route for civilians. Afterward, Trump lectured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about attacking Russia's energy infrastructure, showing just how sensitive the administration is to gas prices, according to the editorial. "Go ahead, make Vladimir Putin’s day, Mr. President," the editorial board wrote. The editorial board also argued that Trump's continued attacks against Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression continue to embolden America's enemies. "So Russia can fire away at any and all targets in Ukraine, but Ukraine must restrain itself in retaliating in Russia," the editorial reads in part. "Mr. Trump is clearly worried about the price of diesel fuel, but blaming Ukraine amid Iranian and Houthi attacks on Mideast (sic) oil production and transport is political excuse-making on a grand scale.""It’s also strategically misguided as Russia and Iran help each other in their respective conflicts," the editorial added. "Mr. Trump seems to think he can put these wars into separate boxes. Every time he does, he has adversaries in Moscow and Tehran smiling at their good luck."