Top World News

Nov 18, 2025 - World

Donald Trump will debase the White House today like never before.Far worse than bulldozing its East Wing, Trump will use the People’s House as the grotesque backdrop for reducing to rubble any pretense of American moral leadership in the world. He will prostrate himself — and our nation — at the feet of one of its most malign actors.All for the money.The killer’s name is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. The world came to know him as MBS when he first gained widespread notoriety for ordering the brutal murder in 2018 of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and legal permanent resident in the U.S.Little more than seven years after Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — his dismembered body never to be found — MBS will be fêted today at the White House. Trump will be there to greet him as a dignitary — ready with smiles, handshakes, photo ops, and promises of billions in deals (presumably not limited to his family in this case).Trump has spent seven years evading the truth, but the intelligence record is unambiguous. On Oct. 2, 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his marriage. He never walked out. Turkish authorities and U.S. intelligence confirmed the gruesome details: he was bound, injected with a fatal sedative, then dismembered, his body chemically dissolved. This was not some “rogue operation.” The CIA examined audio recordings from inside the consulate, intercepted calls, and text messages. MBS sent at least 11 texts to his top adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, who oversaw the 15-man hit squad sent to Istanbul. A member of the hit team called a senior aide to MBS from inside the consulate immediately after the murder to report the job was done.The CIA’s assessment wasn’t vague. Officials called it “blindingly obvious” that MBS gave the order. A killing this organized, this brazen, couldn’t have happened without his approval.And what did Trump do with this intelligence? He didn’t just ignore it — he rejected it outright. He issued a disgraceful, exclamation-point-laden statement dismissing his own CIA’s findings, claiming they only had “feelings” with “no smoking gun” — a deliberate, contemptible lie designed to protect a killer.Trump framed his surrender as “America First” by prioritizing arms sales and oil over the murder of a journalist who lived here. In a moment that never truly engendered the scorn it deserved, he wondered aloud whether people really wanted him to give up “hundreds of thousands of jobs.”That’s what it always comes down to: Money. Arms. Oil. Trump declared that abandoning Saudi Arabia would be a “terrible mistake,” ensuring “we’re with Saudi Arabia and staying with Saudi Arabia” — to hell with justice, truth, and American values.The rest of the world hasn’t forgotten. When the Biden administration released the declassified intelligence report in 2021, it confirmed what everyone already knew: MBS viewed Khashoggi as a threat and supported using violent means to silence him.MBS hasn’t changed. Saudi Arabia is executing prisoners at a record rate and maintaining an unprecedented human rights crackdown. Dozens of activists and writers languish in Saudi prisons for speaking freely.This is not just a crackdown on adults. Human rights groups have documented that Saudi authorities are reneging on their promise to halt the death penalty for juveniles, executing individuals for crimes allegedly committed when they were children, in addition to the hundreds executed for non-lethal, drug-related offenses.But today, Trump rolls out the red carpet — literally. There will be a South Lawn arrival ceremony, an Oval Office meeting, a Cabinet Room signing ceremony, and an East Room dinner hosted by Melania Trump. They’ll sign deals on AI, defense, and semiconductors potentially worth $142 billion. There will be smiling photo ops and glowing praise.What there won’t be is accountability. What there won’t be is justice for Jamal Khashoggi. What there won’t be is any acknowledgment that the man being honored in the White House ordered a journalist lured to his death and dismembered with a bone saw.Seven years later, Trump is doubling down on that betrayal. It would be interesting to see if any of Khashoggi’s erstwhile colleagues in the press dare mention his name today.It appears that the media has moved on. Congress has moved on. But Jamal Khashoggi is still dead, his body never found and his murderer is being celebrated as an honored guest.For Donald Trump, everything has a price.And as long as he’s our president, so does America’s soul.Ray Hartmann writes on Substack at Ray Hartmann's Soapbox

Nov 18, 2025 - World

Exclusive: Tshering Tobgay says his country is doing ‘a lot more than our fair share’ on climate and west must cut emissions ‘for the happiness of your people’The wealthy western countries most responsible for the climate crisis would improve the health and happiness of their citizens by prioritising environmental conservation and sustainable economic growth, according to the prime minister of Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative nation.Bhutan, a Buddhist democratic monarchy and biodiversity hotspot situated high in the eastern Himalayas, is among the world’s most ambitious climate leaders thanks to its people’s connection with nature and a strong political focus on improving gross national happiness rather than just GDP, Tshering Tobgay told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Nov 17, 2025 - World

Hosts of the pro-MAGA Real America's Voice network accused Pope Leo XIV of a "woke turn" after a meeting with Hollywood stars did not include conservatives like Mel Gibson."It's time to stay awake, not woke," host Terrence Bates noted on Monday. "That is where Pope Leo the 14th just hosted a private meeting with Hollywood A-listers, Spike Lee, Kate Blanchett, Judd Apatow, all there. But noticeably not there: Conservatives like Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Jon Voight, and James Woods.""I grew up in Catholic churches," co-host Gina Loudon explained. "My heart just breaks for the good people I know who are Catholics who have had to endure now two popes in a row, I've lost count, is it three popes in a row? All the popes since Pope John Paul essentially have been just— not what the average Catholic that I know believes, right?""What in the heck is this guy doing?" she asked. "What a mockery of God's faithful in the Catholic Church to be worried about getting to rub elbows with Hollywood elite? It sickens me, to be honest.""A hundred percent, I agree with everything you said," co-host David Brody agreed. "Why, just because he's the pope, I mean, all of a sudden there has to be this reverence because he's the pope?"According to Brody, the pope was "doing stuff that's just not biblical in many ways.""We can go down the list if you want to talk about the LGBT aspect of it, or how about blessing a block of ice?" he continued. "I feel bad for the Catholics that are just like, you know, would like to see a pope actually speak out on the traditional biblical values that are not only time-honored and cherished but are actually factual and accurate and biblical.""Don't put him on a pedestal," Bates added.

Nov 17, 2025 - World

Hasina sentenced in absentia by court in Dhaka over deadly crackdown on student-led uprising last yearBangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Dhaka for crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.A three-judge bench of the country’s international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including incitement, orders to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities as she oversaw a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year. Continue reading...

Nov 17, 2025 - World

Comments made by Pope Leo and a widely spread attack on President Donald Trump by Catholic bishops on his harsh immigration policies should give his administration pause that the ground beneath them is shifting — and not in a good way, it was warned Monday.The hosts of “Morning Joe,” noted the Pope calling the treatment of undocumented immigrants a “grave injustice” and combined that with a statement from America’s Roman Catholic bishops asserting, “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.”That led MS NOW's Joe Scarborough to tell his panel, ”One of the most remarkable things I've seen is Pope Leo, Catholic bishops, doing something unbelievably radical. I'm sure the White House thinks this is radical Republicans. They are quoting Jesus Christ, and they are quoting Jesus Christ from the pulpit, and they are showing how un-Christ-like these ICE raids are, where they're ripping children from their mothers' hands.”“They are going into schools.,They are tearing teachers out. I mean, this is the Catholic bishops and Pope Leo. This is a game changer.” “I know, I know, people have people outside the faith community may not understand this, but this is a game changer,” he added. “And Pope Leo saying, ‘Oh, really? You call yourself pro-life just because you're against abortion, but you support this inhumane treatment of immigrants?’ No, no, no, those those two don't square up.” - YouTube youtu.be