Top World News
Bolivia arrests alleged drug kingpin accused of putting hit on Paraguayan prosecutor
Bolivian interior ministry says Sebastián Marset is being extradited to US, where he’s wanted for money launderingSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxSebastián Marset, an alleged Uruguayan drug trafficker and one of South America’s most wanted criminals, has been arrested in Bolivia.Marset, 34, is accused of trafficking tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe, and also of having ordered the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor who was shot dead as he honeymooned on a Colombian beach in 2022. Continue reading...
An environmental activist and her family escaped death threats in Honduras. ICE deported her husband anyway
Oscar, Ana and their children fled violence for safety in the US. Now Oscar, afraid and alone, is back in Honduras – ‘at the mercy of God and his will’ As soon as Oscar’s deportation flight landed at the La Lima airport in Honduras, he put on his baseball cap. On the airport shuttle toward the terminal, he pulled his cap even lower – trying to obscure his face at various police checkpoints.His parents picked him up in a car, and drove him to a lodging they had arranged for him – miles away from his family home. He has hardly stepped outside since. “Because I can’t trust anyone – not the authorities, not the government, not a police officer,” he said. He has visited his mother a handful of times since the US deported him three weeks ago, and only under the cover of night. “They will kill anyone here. There is death everywhere.” Continue reading...
Trump gets another midterm warning as he's 'underwater' with vital voting bloc: CNN host
President Donald Trump must address a challenge with one group of voters, a CNN analyst said Friday. As midterms approach, Trump needs to focus on independents, the group most divided on the joint U.S.-Israeli war in Iran, political commentator and CNN host Michael Smerconish told anchor Wolf Blitzer. "I see that largely it's a referendum on the commander in chief," Smerconish said. "Republicans overwhelmingly supportive of the efforts, supportive of the president; Democrats in equal numbers, in opposition. The tie breakers are the independents, and that's why, by a relatively slim margin, I see the war effort as being underwater." He argued that the upcoming elections would reveal how Americans support both the president and the conflict in the Middle East, something that the Trump administration should focus its messaging around. He also suggested the White House needs to shift its approach toward explaining why the military strikes were happening. "It needs to be sold more about policy than the personality of the president," Smerconish said. "I think what they need to say is, look, for half a century religious fanatics who rule in another country have sworn our destruction. 'Death to America, death to Israel.' We're just not going to let them have a nuclear weapon. And I'd repeat it and repeat it and repeat it."
Trump predicts 'winding road' for Iran war in rambling interview with YouTube boxer
President Donald Trump predicted that his war in Iran would be "a little winding road for a little while" but said it had to be done because the country had an "evil curse."During an interview with controversial YouTube boxer Jake Paul this week, Trump attempted to explain his thinking on the Iran war."We did this excursion. We had to do it. Wipe out evil. Sometimes you have evil," the president said. "So we have to do it right, but our military has been unbelievable.""No, and I commend you for your bravery, and I think so many Iranians do as well," Paul speculated. "And I think what you're doing is phenomenal. And I was shocked that so many activists, like, in America, didn't like it. But meanwhile, they were like, 'oh, we support women.'""We support gays, but they throw gays off the buildings, okay?" Trump replied. "But I think I have tremendous support on this. This is something that's been incredible. I have the best poll numbers I've ever had now, and it's not because of this.""It's a little bit of a, we take a little winding road for a little while, but we have to wipe out the evil," the president added. "It's an evil curse. They're evil people."
'No!' GOP campaign expert laughs at Jim Jordan as he shoots down gas price claim
Longtime campaign strategist Mark McKinnon, who advised former President George W. Bush and the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), could not contain his laughter after watching Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) being interviewed on CNN late Thursday.Appearing on MS NOW with host Chris Jansing, McKinnon watched Jordan tell CNN's Kasie Hunt, “President Trump is committed to achieving that [Iran regime change] goal, and if that means prices go up for a time, I think Americans understand, we can live with that .But, in the end, we want all that to happen, and we want it all to happen in as quick a time as it possibly can.”After sharing the clip, Jansing asked her guest, “But with gas now up 65 cents a gallon and no end in sight, do you think Americans understand?”“No!” McKinnon exclaimed while laughing. “I think Americans have a very low pain threshold; short-term pain, mid-term pain, long-term pain. Americans are not very good at sacrificing anything, particularly for a conflict that they're not supporting going in, much less four weeks into it now. So that's a real problem for the administration.”“And, you know, it's the Iranians are reading the American media, and they know that politicians react to their voters and their voters are reacting to the price of oil,” he elaborated. “And I just — it's astonishing to me that the general there said the only thing preventing [Strait of Hormuz shipping] traffic is Iran. Yeah. The place where bombing is preventing it, and they know it, and they know that they can just continue this.” - YouTube youtu.be
GOP leaders openly balk at emergency funding push for Trump's war
Congressional Republicans are openly rejecting Donald Trump's pleas for emergency funding to sustain the Iran war, signaling deep skepticism within his own party about a conflict that remains broadly unpopular with American voters, according to a report.Operation Epic Fury has already consumed staggering sums — over $1 billion per day, with the Pentagon burning through $11.3 billion in just the first six days of combat. Yet Republican lawmakers are unmoved by White House requests for supplemental spending.Top Republicans told Politico they see no urgency to boost the Pentagon's already bloated $1 trillion budget. Democrats are unlikely to provide support, making passage of any supplemental package an uphill political battle — especially in a midterm election year when Trump needs to campaign on affordability.The White House faces a political nightmare, Politico reported. It must spend significant time and political capital securing funding for a deeply unpopular war while simultaneously claiming fiscal responsibility. The sluggish congressional timeline threatens to collide with Trump's plans to dramatically expand the defense budget next year.Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel, captured the lack of urgency: "I don't think there is any urgency at this moment. The urgency is in starting to educate Congress as to why we need a supplemental at all."Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) indicated the supplemental won't reach Capitol Hill until the month's end at the earliest, with key appropriators warning passage could take weeks or months.Democrats hold significant leverage. A unified caucus can block the legislation if at least seven Democratic senators refuse back it, meaning it would fail to cross the 60-vote threshold required for passage.At least one Republican is already siding with skeptics. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) vowed to oppose any Iran supplemental, citing constituents hurt by war-driven oil prices. "I'm against borrowing money from China to finance the war in the Middle East," Paul stated. "We've got a lot of problems in our country that we need to fix."You can read more here.
'Flabbergasted' analyst changes subject to rip 'unserious' Pete Hegseth: 'It's just weird'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s combative press conference at the Pentagon on Friday morning was on the mind of MS NOW contributor Sam Stein hours later when he made an appearance to discuss Donald Trump’s next overseas target.Hegseth spent a great portion of his thirty-minute-plus appearance attacking reporters and dictating what headlines he thinks they should be reporting, while accusing them of a lack of patriotism.Stein admitted he was still reeling from what he witnessed.Asked by host Jonathan Lemire about Donald Trump’s military adventurism in Iran and Venezuela, and threats aimed at Cuba, Stein took an off-ramp instead."Yeah, and I just want to take a moment to talk about the defense secretary's claims, because I watched this morning's press conference and it was flabbergasting, honestly,” the grimacing Stein told the “Morning Joe” host. “I mean, there's a few things that he said that just jump out. He called the new ayatollah the quote, ‘new so-called not-so-supreme leader.’ I mean, what are we doing here?” he asked. “He outlined plans to intensify the bombing of Iran and then simultaneously criticized news networks for running banners saying that the Middle East war is intensifying — totally contradictory. He urged CNN to get new ownership.”“I mean, this is a serious moment,” he lamented. “Obviously, an incredible human suffering, global economic ramifications. And we have someone in charge who is using these press briefings in a very unserious way, not trying to be moral about it, but it's just weird.” - YouTube youtu.be
MAGA host hits Trump for using Iran to divert from Epstein: 'We need to get back to that'
Pro-MAGA morning show host Gina Loudon suggested President Donald Trump was using the Iran war to distract from the Epstein files.During a Friday conversation on Real America's Voice, co-host Terrance Bates followed up Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's briefing by arguing the U.S. was in a "holy war.""It's like the two sides that are in this are so dug in on this," Loudon said of Americans. "Both sides lose me at a certain point. I am not okay with forever wars. There's no question about that. I don't think we need to be sending all this money to Israel or any place else that we send.""I just think we got to, we got to, we need Jesus," she continued. "But we need Jesus. There's no other answer than that right now."Co-host David Brody, however, insisted that the conflict was "not a holy war.""I don't think it is from our standpoint," he remarked. "At least not publicly.""But America has been sold a lot of bills of goods," Loudon ranted. "And our young men and women have died because we were going to, this was not going to be a forever war.""So it's a fair level of accountability to say, hey, don't forget, there is a military industrial complex that does have a very vested interest, and there are very powerful people in every crevice of our world of entertainment of government," she added. "The Epstein files exposes that. We need to get back to that conversation, and we need to learn from it, and we need to say look we're not going to sit down and shut up just because somebody we like says, oh, by the way, we're going to war, this isn't going to last forever, because guess what?""We've been told that before. And so I think it's fair to ask questions and to give reminders and to be that accountability voice."
France returns sacred talking drum looted from Côte d’Ivoire over 100 years ago
Djidji Ayôkwé was handed to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this monthA sacred artefact looted by French colonial authorities more than a century ago has been returned to Côte d’Ivoire in one of the most significant cultural restitutions to a former French colony in years.The Djidji Ayôkwé, a talking drum confiscated in 1916 by French administrators, landed at 8.45am on Friday at the airport in Port Bouët on the outskirts of the economic capital, Abidjan. It was handed over to Ivorian officials in Paris earlier this month after being removed from the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum. Continue reading...
The kill line v Chinamaxxing: a window into how China and the US see each other
In China, one social media trend hangs on the idea that a life in the US is always one step from disaster, while another in the US has gen Z revelling in Chinese lifestyle hacksAcross two online worlds that are normally splintered, over the last few months there has been a mirroring of sorts. On TikTok and Instagram, young people are diving into the joys of Chinese culture – from drinking hot water to playing mahjong – all under the banner of “Chinamaxxing”. On the Chinese internet, however, the US is losing its decades-long grip on soft power, and is instead being replaced by a darker trend: the kill line.The kill line is a dangerous place to be. In gaming, the term refers to the point at which a player’s strength is so depleted that one more blow could lead to total wipeout. In China, the term refers to the risks that come with daily life in the US. Continue reading...
Eswatini says it received more ‘third country’ deportees as part of deal with Trump administration
Two deportees sent to Eswatini were from Somalia, one was from Sudan and another was from TanzaniaThe government of Eswatini announced on Thursday it received four more “third country” deportees from the United States, as part of the Trump administration’s multimillion-dollar deal with the small African nation.Now a total of 19 deportees from the US have been sent to Eswatini even as they hail from other countries, amid the Trump administration’s continued anti-immigrant crackdown and changes to immigration policy. Continue reading...
UK government axes flagship global health project
Programme which supports schemes in six African countries was previously hailed as vital protection for Britain against future pandemicsA flagship health project in Africa, which UK ministers said would play a vital role in protecting Britain from future pandemic threats, is being axed due to aid cuts, the Guardian can reveal.The Global Health Workforce Programme (GHWP) which supported development and training for healthcare staff in six African countries, will close at the end of the month, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said. Continue reading...
