Top World News

There is so much chaotic news coming out of this White House that it’s tough to focus on the urgency of any single story.But nothing jolted me quite like this week’s Iran War revelation that a combat unit commander urged noncommissioned officers to motivate U.S. troops by telling them Donald Trump had been “anointed by Jesus,” and that the conflict was “all part of God’s divine plan” to bring about Armageddon and Biblical End Times.I’d assumed the other guys were the fundamentalists here.Thankfully, the above disclosure sparked hundreds of complaints from service members across all branches of the armed forces to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) — a group I hadn’t known existed.Extremist Christian rhetoric is utterly incompatible with any sound judgment, much less strategic conduct of warfare. It is the precise opposite. It’s how you get kamikaze combatants eager to die for the cause and send body counts soaring. It’s how you generate fighters operating out of crazed zealotry rather than tactical reason.It's also how you destroy any semblance of a chance for a diplomatic solution. To religion-driven radicals fighting a war framed as a defense of God’s will, negotiation itself can feel like a betrayal of the cause.If you’re fighting for sacred dominance — for “My god is cooler than your god” belief — anything less than complete annihilation of the infidel enemy is unthinkable. You don’t attempt to converse with evil itself.If you’re talking about Armageddon and the End Times, you’re referring to termination of the world, as cited in the Book of Revelation, and a renewed Creation while welcoming the return of Christ.Let me add here that while I accept and appreciate everyone’s religious freedom and work hard to disparage none of it, even though it’s not my thing, I’m not terribly keen on this whole planet destruction deal. That kind of infringes on my right to continue living on earth. So, I have to push back.Here is what I believe with all of my heart and soul: you can fight people and do battle with their beliefs and principles but you can’t effectively go to war against (or with) a spirit. It gets tricky when you start using dogma to inspire. That whole separation of church and state idea comes into play, and those who defend the division are branded as antagonists.I’ve long believed that more monstrous behavior and immorality has been perpetrated in the name of religion than any other factor, since the dawn of time.What’s undeniable is that a religious war is much tougher — if not outright impossible — to limit. You can use it to justify any and all atrocities, because if the war effort is framed as a holy mission, the opponent is reduced to being less than human.How do you fight people who are attaching their virtue to the return of an immortal being, of God’s purported chosen son?You don’t.In this clash, the adversary isn’t merely on the other side of a theological divide but fully dehumanized. In that scenario, restraint and understanding collapse. Rivals become demonic. All bets are off.The obvious issue here is that we have a Secretary of “War,” the execrable Pete Hegseth, who is a rabid evangelical Christian and raging alcoholic who has no understanding of limits. He proudly integrates faith into his identity, not to mention his government job. His relationship with Jesus Christ is personal. The man has a Jerusalem Cross tattooed on his chest.Again, it wouldn’t matter what Hegseth’s beliefs were if they didn’t so profoundly impinge on the rest of us. He’s far more devoted to his concept of God than he is to the human population. He opens Pentagon events by giving “all glory to God,” which is so far over the line for a public servant that it leaves one speechless.Hegseth appears to truly believe that any war he fights is about eternal destiny and maintains that God commands his actions. But of course, in this perception, “God” is simply what Hegseth calls his thoughts. He couldn’t go out and mow down 30 people with an AR-15 and justify it by saying, “God told me to do it” … though some have tried.It’s simply a fact that when God enters into the military conversation, nothing anyone else insists upon can diverge from such pious certainty. Excessive brutality becomes almost inevitable because purported faith rationalizes your basest instincts and rages.To bring it back to our soldiers being told they’re carrying out “God’s divine plan,” the biggest problem is that it plants the idea in their heads that rules of combat no longer exist, and the spiritual ends justify any means.You can defend dishonorable conduct because you’re backed by a deeper calling that invites martyrdom, deepening conviction further. Volatility is guaranteed to ratchet up.Referring to Armageddon with such lustful excitement is the kind of bombast that inspires thoughts of nuclear options. It has no business being used to motivate our fighting forces.Once we cross that line of fanaticism, there’s really no turning back.Ray Richmond is a longtime journalist/author and an adjunct professor at Chapman University in Orange, CA.

‘Stopgap measure’ designed to keep oil flowing into global market as Middle East crisis disrupts crude shipmentsBusiness live – latest updatesThe US has temporarily allowed India to buy Russian oil currently stuck at sea in an effort to keep global supplies flowing and temper further price increases.The US treasury has issued a 30-day waiver allowing India to buy Russian oil, having previously imposed heavy sanctions related to the war in Ukraine. Continue reading...

Cheap semaglutide, the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy, could help millions with diabetes and obesity in 160 countriesWeight-loss jabs such as Wegovy could be made for just $3 a month, according to new analysis, potentially making the treatment available to millions in poorer countries as patents expire.More than a billion people live with obesity worldwide, with rates rising fast in lower-income nations as they shift to westernised diets and more sedentary lifestyles. Continue reading...

South-east Asian country limits air conditioning and travel for public officials amid soaring fuel pricesMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe Philippines is searching for ways to conserve energy in response to surging fuel costs, with public officials ordered to cut back on air conditioning usage and reduce travel.All national government agencies, state universities and colleges, and local government branches have been told to reduce fuel consumption by at least 10% in response to the crisis in the Middle East. Government offices have been told to adopt flexible work arrangements, and to set air conditioning units no lower than 24 degrees. Continue reading...

Urgent request to dock is submitted by vessel after US submarine sank Iranian warship in same area on TuesdayMiddle East crisis – live updatesSri Lanka has evacuated 208 crew members from an Iranian navy vessel that made an emergency request to dock, a day after a US submarine strike sank another Iranian frigate, killing more than 80 people on board.Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, on Thursday confirmed that the country’s navy would take over Iranian military support ship IRIS Bushehr and allow it to dock at the north-eastern port of Trincomalee. Continue reading...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) again insisted that he would refuse to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate after President Donald Trump suggested he would endorse his opponent, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), in retaliation for threatening to disobey the commander-in-chief's demands.In a post to Truth Social this week, Trump said he would make his endorsement in the Texas Senate race "soon," adding that the candidate whom he did not endorse would be ordered to "immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!"Paxton responded on Wednesday by saying he would stay in the race against the president's wishes."I'm staying in this race," the candidate asserted. "I owe it to the people of Texas.""Well, that's bad for him to say," Trump said on Thursday. "That is bad for him. So maybe, maybe that leads me to go the other direction."The threat, however, did not change Paxton's mind when he was asked about it on Thursday."No, I'm going to give people in Texas a choice," he told MAGA influencer Benny Johnson. "The people in Washington can have their own opinion. The president can have his own opinion, but I've been in this race for almost a year, and we're going to win this race in the runoff.""So, do you have any indication that President Trump might endorse you?" Johnson wondered."Well, I know that John Cornyn has suggested that Susie Wiles, as [Trump's] chief of staff, is behind this. I don't know what's true or not true," Paxton replied.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, warned Thursday about what President Donald Trump's next moves in the war against Iran could be. Himes told CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown that after the Senate rejected a resolution to limit Trump's war powers without congressional permission—a measure also expected to fail Thursday in the House—lawmakers were now in a difficult position regarding military action against Iran, with few options remaining. "There's a really kind of dark answer to that question, which and the answer to that is, and I hate to be this blunt and honest with the American people, but it's true. The answer to that question is nothing," Himes said. "Even if the war powers resolution were to have passed the Senate and to have passed the House, there is no reason to believe that Donald Trump would have taken that into account."Himes argued that Trump would have vetoed the resolution regardless of what lawmakers said. He predicted what Trump would do. "And so what eventually is going to end this war is what we're beginning to see already, just in the fourth or fifth day of this war, gasoline prices are already up $0.22 a gallon on average across the country," Himes said. "They are now higher than they were when Donald Trump took office the stock market is stumbling today. And by the way, I should have put this first. But most tragically and most importantly, there are now six Americans dead in this war. Eventually the pressure of those losses in the context of the administration's inability to tell us how this ends, you know how or when this ends, eventually the American people are going to be even more sour on this war than they already are now. And I suspect what happens then is that Donald Trump just pulls the plug, declares victory, and walks away."And despite reports that Iranian military forces have weakened, that doesn't mean they're done fighting, Himes explained. "There's no question that the Iranians are being very badly hit right now most of their navy is gone," Himes said. "There's lots of almost MTV-quality videos that you can watch on an hourly basis being released by the White House and by the Department of Defense. The reality is that the Iranians maintain pretty shocking military capability and asymmetric capability. That's what we, you know, the fancy term for the terrorists that they have for generations now been planting in the region, and scarily outside of the region."He also described another troubling concern for American intelligence involved in the strikes against Iran — and how a move by the FBI could be putting troops at potential risk. "As this regime gets increasingly desperate, they are going to reach for those tools at a time, by the way, when the FBI has fired the people who are Iran counterterrorism experts and whatnot," Himes said. "So it is a very, very real danger. And I just pray that this administration sobers up, takes their eye off of their constant need to praise this president, and actually gets into the business of defending and standing for the security of the American people."

President Donald Trump insisted that he be "involved" in picking the next leader of Iran after the United States assassinated Ali Khamenei in Operation Epic Fury.In an interview with Axios on Thursday, Trump revealed that he would not accept Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the former supreme leader."They are wasting their time," the U.S. president said. "Khamenei's son is a lightweight." "I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela," he added.Trump also said he would not accept a leader who would force the U.S. to strike Iran again "in five years.""Khamenei's son is unacceptable to me. We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran," he insisted.When pressed about a new Iranian leader earlier this week, Trump was unable to come up with a name."Most of the people we had in mind are dead," he said.