Top World News

Jul 2, 2026 - World

A leading political scientist revealed a chilling prediction Thursday suggesting that the Trump Department of Justice was close to reaching a deal with captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and contributing editor for The Atlantic, said that the deal was inching closer to completion and suggested that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche would work out a deal with Maduro and his wife over an unsubstantiated claim that Venezuela interfered in the 2020 American presidential election — something President Donald Trump has long complained was "rigged.""Something I predicted multiple times is about to come true," Ornstein wrote on X. "Blanche is going to cut a deal with Maduro to have him falsely claim that Venezuela tilted the 2020 elections. In return, he and his wife are likely to be in the same prison as Ghislaine Maxwell."Ornstein was not the only political expert to weigh in on this apparent negotiation. Tara Setmayer, co-founder of bipartisan superPAC The Seneca Project, responded to this forecast."I’m hearing this Maduro rumor also," she wrote on X. "As soon as he was captured, I thought Trump would try this nonsense. Firing Bondi, then Gabbard opened up this scheme with Blanche & Pulte as the henchmen. I hope this doesn’t happen but it’s more than plausible and would throw the midterms into utter chaos."Something I predicted multiple times is about to come true. Blanche is going to cut a deal with Maduro to have him falsely claim that Venezuela tilted the 2020 elections. In return, he and his wife are likely to be in the same prison as Ghislaine Maxwell— Norman Ornstein (@NormOrnstein) July 2, 2026

Jul 2, 2026 - World

An offhand comment from Donald Trump to Vice President JD Vance may not have been meant for public consumption, according to political analyst Heather Digby Parton.In an unguarded moment this week, Vance disclosed that Trump told envoys tasked with negotiating a peace deal with Iran to "use the [memorandum of understanding] to refill the world's oil economy, refill some stocks and then to see where the hand is." According to Parton, that was an admission that the administration is stalling negotiations to drive down gas prices before possibly restarting the war, but that Vance's blunder is simply business as usual in an administration where "verbal incontinence" cascades from the top down. Trump's tendency to blurt out whatever pops into his head has become so normalized that his vice president is now doing the same thing — casually revealing strategic calculations about a potential Middle East conflict to the public, she suggested.According to Parton, during Trump's first term, "... administration officials like John F. Kelly, his second White House chief of staff, and Jim Mattis and Mark Esper, his first two defense secretaries, tried to contain the president’s worst impulses, they were often unsuccessful. Trump seemed congenitally undisciplined, unable to stop himself from articulating every thought that passed through his head, usually to brag, blame or threaten. The result was a presidency that was, in a word, unstable."Now a year and a half into his second term, that instability has grown because he believes he can do no wrong."Trump’s old compulsion to behave erratically and shoot his mouth off is now combined with a megalomania that has him building monuments to himself and musing openly about being included in the pantheon of dictators like Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. Today he’s driven by a belief that he is omnipotent, and nothing he does will have any negative consequences. He has come to believe that whatever he says is the right thing, no matter what," she wrote. Even worse, she suggested, if Trump faces "blowback," he dismisses it and makes more outrageous claims."He is impervious to criticism now because he literally believes he can do no wrong, and there are tens of millions of people who believe that too," she warned.

Jul 2, 2026 - World

With the country engrossed by the unexpected success of the US men's team’s performance in the 2026 World Cup, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin refused to take the high road when the team from Iran was eliminated.In a column for MS NOW, political analyst Zeeshan Aleem called out the former Oklahoma plumber-turned-US senator for gloating in the Iran team elimination after the US government made their appearance a nightmare with travel restrictions and continued harassment by government officials."I'm just glad they're done, and they're not coming back," Mullin boasted, according to Politico. "I was so happy when we were able to pull their visas and said they could leave U.S. soil, and I might have sung a song or two, or maybe danced a happy dance."According to Aleem, what Mullin glossed over was the fact that the U.S. government had spent weeks making life hell for Iran's team. The administration didn't just deny visas to support staff—it forced Iran to move its training base from Arizona to Mexico, sabotaged their preparation time, and treated elite athletes like criminals rather than competitors in an international sporting event.And yet Iran nearly made it to the knockout stage anyway—three draws despite the handicaps the Trump administration imposed.Calling the Donald Trump appointee "classless," Aleem added, "After all this, Mullin had the opportunity to wish Iran’s team well or stay silent. Instead he gloried in their loss and underscored the narrative that the team should be viewed purely as a proxy for the Iranian government."He added that had Mullin been gracious or, better yet, said nothing, it would have been a boon to Trump negotiators who have been spinning their wheels attempting to negotiate an end to the war with Iran that has help put the US economy into a tailspin. "It’s a reminder of how Mullin’s comments are not just unsportsmanlike, they’re bad diplomacy. The U.S. is in negotiations with Iran to wind down a war in which the U.S. has faced a humiliating loss and lacks the leverage to extract good terms. Why would a prominent Trump official bask in Iran being ousted from the World Cup, a globally watched opportunity to use soft power?" he asked. "A long-term thinker might have used the tournament to show Iran that the U.S. could be fair-minded. Instead, the Trump administration confirmed countless Iranians’ suspicions that the U.S. is treacherous and untrustworthy, as if hawks in Iran needed more ammunition."

Jul 2, 2026 - World

Authorities say rainy season getting deadlier, with Ghana reporting 13 dead and floods hitting Benin, Togo and NigeriaFloods in Côte d’Ivoire have killed 59 people since May, the communication minister told a cabinet meeting in Abidjan.There are fears the toll could further rise as rescue teams continue to search for victims during the rainy season, which runs from May until July, the minister, Amadou Coulibaly, added. Continue reading...

Jul 2, 2026 - World

A fiery debate broke out between a CNN anchor and a MAGA-defending correspondent who warned about "Chinese babies." CNN anchor Abby Phillip hosted a panel discussion about calls from MAGA to stop immigrants from having children in the United States. The MAGA line comes after the Supreme Court blocked Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship.She had the panel react to a line from Trump legal adviser Mike Davis, where he called on the administration to shift its focus from mass deportations to "going to get these pregnant women the hell out of our country, women and women who could be pregnant."Phillip called suggestions of changing birthright citizenship via an executive order "bad politics, bad optics, maybe both," when New York Post correspondent Lydia Moynihan stepped in to defend the MAGA point of view."We already know that foreign adversaries are exploiting this," Moynihan said. "There's been 1.5 million Chinese CCP babies who have been born on U.S. soil.""I've never seen the number be that high," Phillip said. "Are you talking about Chinese nationals who have come here?""Yes," Moynihan said. "That's an issue that we know our foreign adversaries are exploiting.""Do you realize that not all of them are here to give birth?" Phillip responded.Moynihan continued on about how Chinese immigrants "exploit" birth tourism, and talked over Phillip, whom she accused of trying to "argue the numbers.""You're saying all of the 1.5 million people of Chinese heritage are coming for the sole purpose of utilizing our social services?" Phillip asked, having to talk over Moynihan as she demanded, "Do you want people whose parents are CCP citizens, who grew up in China, to come here and vote?""There are plenty of people who have parents of foreign citizenship, who are American citizens and do in fact have the right to vote," Phillip responded. "They might be from China, they might be from Russia, they might be from England, they might be from anywhere in the world. That is not illegal, to have parents from another country."