Top World News

Apr 1, 2026 - World

Donald Trump's plan for the war with Iran could cause even further trouble for taxpayers across the country, according to a Nobel Prize winner. Paul Krugman has warned that the president's current task in Iran is to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Crude oil prices reached a staggering $100 a barrel earlier this week, and the veteran economist does not see the price improving any time soon. Even though the United States' own oil exporters profited from the Strait of Hormuz closure, Krugman claims there is no way this will help the average citizen. Writing in his Substack, he explained, "Now, America produces a lot of oil, and the domestic oil industry will be earning large windfall profits even as U.S. consumers suffer. But so what? "We don’t have any mechanism in place to capture and redistribute those windfall gains, so ordinary U.S. families will bear the full brunt of the global oil shock even though America is a net oil exporter.""The Fed could, in principle, try to look through the effects of the Strait crisis on business costs as well as direct effects on consumer prices. But given how nervous everyone is about the risk of 70s-type stagflation, it probably won’t."Krugman went on to suggest the reaction of the Federal Reserve could be a cause for concern. "There’s an additional, technical but important reason to be even more worried about soaring prices for diesel, jet fuel and industrial materials than about gasoline prices," he wrote. "It involves how the Federal Reserve is likely to react."The Fed normally bases its decisions about whether to reduce or increase interest rates on 'core' inflation — inflation excluding food and energy prices. The reason it does this is that food and energy prices are highly volatile and are usually a poor indicator of what inflation will be over the next few years.""So the Fed tries to 'look through' inflation fluctuations driven mainly by the prices of groceries and gasoline. For example, it didn’t raise rates in 2011, when there was a temporary uptick in inflation driven entirely by oil prices."

Apr 1, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's off-the-cuff statements about the Iran war have sowed confusion among foreign leaders and financial markets, and within his own administration.Some of the 79-year-old president's aides and allies confirmed to Axios that Trump has been improvising his plan for the war, saying he likes to keep his options open and spitball ideas for the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation with various audiences, and they said he has vacillated between a major escalation and a swift resolution."Nobody knows in the end what he's really thinking," said one senior adviser."They had a plan for the first week and since then, they are making the plan up as they go along," added a former U.S. official.Some administration officials and outside allies argue the ambiguity is intentional. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who recently spoke with Trump, told Axios: "That's the plan — for you to not have a clue." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed this sentiment, stating the objective is to remain "unpredictable." An unnamed official characterized the strategy as "12-dimensional" chess, claiming Trump deliberately contradicts himself to obscure his intentions.Current signals suggest Trump may be preparing to withdraw and declare victory within two to three weeks. He has repeatedly discussed U.S. success and potential exit scenarios. However, his private conversations increasingly focus on hawkish advisers like Graham and conservative commentator Mark Levin rather than those cautioning against escalation.The contradictions are apparent in simultaneous actions: Trump discusses exit strategies while simultaneously massing additional forces in the region, including potential invasion capabilities. Officials speculate that if an April 6 deadline passes without a negotiated settlement, Trump may authorize heavy bombing of Iranian infrastructure and nuclear facilities before withdrawing.Regional allies like Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worry about leaving Iran weakened but unbowed."The Saudis sound like Mark Levin," one Trump adviser said. "They want the U.S. to finish the job by wiping Iran off the globe now. We don't want to."Additional complications include unresolved challenges regarding the Strait of Hormuz and potential ongoing "mowing the grass" operations — periodic strikes conducted after major combat concludes."The president said early on we might have to come back," another administration official said, "and we might have to. If we have to mow the lawn again, the grass won't be nearly as tall next time."Trump is scheduled to address the nation on Iran Wednesday evening, potentially offering the clarity his own advisers and international partners desperately seek.

Apr 1, 2026 - World

Donald Trump has suggested he has no interest in continuing with NATO and may even pull the United States out of the intergovernmental organization. The president has done much to anger the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's members this year, strongly implying he would take Greenland by force if necessary. His administration's strikes on Iran last month marked another contentious point for the president and his relationship with NATO, as he called on member nations to back the war. Speaking to The Telegraph, Trump said, “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way."Trump went on to use the war in Ukraine as an example of where he felt the US had been let down by NATO members and other governments. Trump added, "Beyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe. And I didn’t do a big sale. I just said, ‘Hey’, you know, I didn’t insist too much. I just think it should be automatic."We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us."The president's comments on NATO follow on from Secretary of State Marco Rubio denouncing the intergovernmental organization. In an interview with Hashem Ahelbarra of Al Jazeera, the Donald Trump appointee criticized the NATO alliance for not backing the US war on Iran, and then stated, “I think it was very disappointing. You have this – and again, look, the President and our country will have to reexamine all of this after this operation is over.""But one of the reasons why NATO is beneficial to the United States is it gives us basing rights for contingencies. It allows us to station troops and aircraft and weapons in parts of the world that we wouldn’t normally have bases, and that includes in much of Europe.”

Apr 1, 2026 - World

Three world leaders have or will be addressing the nation on Wednesday regarding the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, news of which sparked an immediate online frenzy of speculation and fear.“Uh oh,” wrote progressive influencer Hasan Piker Wednesday in a social media post on X to their more than 1.6 million followers.“Uhhhhh guys. What's going on?” wrote another in response to the news, X user “Elections Joe,” a political commentator with more than 20,000 followers.Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in a “rare national address,” urged Australians early Wednesday morning to switch to public transport and to prepare for difficult times as a result of the ongoing Iran conflict, which has sent oil prices soaring. United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivered a similar address Wednesday, warning Britons of an impending “crisis.”And the White House revealed on Tuesday that President Donald Trump would be addressing the nation Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET to provide “an important update” on his administration’s war against Iran.“This seems coordinated,” wrote academic and author Sunny Singh in a social media post on X, reacting to the news of three world leaders issuing major addresses on the same day.“This reminds me of March, 2020,” wrote Aidan Simardone, a Canadian immigration lawyer, in a social media post on X, referencing the brief time period leading up to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.And X user “Rational Aussie,” a popular political commentator who’s amassed more than 33,000 followers, speculated that the multi-national address could be an effort to “get ahead of incredibly bad news that will follow shortly.”uh oh https://t.co/P3eMQHikCu— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) April 1, 2026

Apr 1, 2026 - World

French President Emmanuel Macron called for a ceasefire in the Middle East during a visit to Japan on Wednesday.