Top World News

May 11, 2026 - World

Temperatures soar in California and Arizona, while deluge continues across Western and Northern CapeHeat is expected to intensify across western parts of the US and Mexico this week as a ridge of high pressure pushes temperatures well above the seasonal norm. Daytime highs are forecast to reach 10-15C above average in some areas.The US National Weather Service has issued heat advisories for parts of California and Arizona, with extreme heat warnings in force on Monday and Tuesday in places such as Palm Springs, where temperatures could reach 40-43C (104-110F). More broadly, temperatures are expected to climb into the high 30s celsius before the heat shifts eastwards towards the midwest later this week. Continue reading...

May 10, 2026 - World

1st Lt Kendrick Lamont Key Jr was participating in military exercise among US, Nato allies and African countriesA search team recovered the body of a US soldier who went missing near a cliff during a training exercise in Cap Draa, Morocco, the US army said on Sunday.Moroccan searchers found the remains on Saturday in the water within a mile (1.6km) of where the soldier went missing on 2 May, the army said in a statement. Continue reading...

May 10, 2026 - World

The Trump administration continued its illegal bombing of small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific on Friday, killing two and leaving one survivor in its third such strike in five days.US Southern Command announced the attack on social media, claiming that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”“Under [President Donald] Trump’s illegal orders, the US military conducted its third boat strike in five days against supposed drug smugglers, killing at least two. Each of these is a murder. Drug suspects should be arrested and prosecuted, not summarily executed,” former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth wrote on social media Saturday in response to the news.Friday’s strike marks the 57th by the Trump administration and raises the death toll from the boat-strike campaign, which experts say is illegal even if every boat targeted is ferrying drugs, to 192.“What do you call a US citizen who smuggles drugs, SOUTHCOM? A ‘narco-terrorist’?” social media user Andrew Marinelli said in response to the Southern Command announcement. “If a US citizen [allegedly] drove drugs into Canada and they blew him away with a drone strike, would you accept it?”The administration has also not provided evidence for its claims that the boats belong to drug traffickers, and relatives of the victims say at least some of those killed were simply on the water to fish.Friday’s strike was notable in that it left behind a survivor and that US Southern Command said it had activated the US Coast Guard to conduct a search and rescue operation.The announcement may reflect a response to backlash after news broke last year that, in the administration’s first such strike, commanders had ordered a vessel bombed twice when it became clear there were survivors, in keeping with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s directive to “kill everybody.”Despite scrutiny, the campaign has continued and even escalated in the past few weeks. There have been three such bombings since the beginning of May, according to The Intercept: One on May 4 in the Caribbean that killed two, one on May 5 in the Pacific that killed three, and the Pacific strike on May 8 that killed two. The reported survivor remains missing.While the Trump administration claims the strikes have dramatically reduced the flow of illegal drugs into the US, evidence reveals this is not the case, according to an Intercept analysis published May 4.For example, Trump claimed that drugs entering the US by sea had decreased by 97%, but the administration’s own data contradicts this claim, retired Rear Adm. William Baumgartner told The Intercept.Adam Isacson, the director for defense oversight at human rights group Washington Office on Latin America, said, “Really absurdly, there’s been no impact on flows of drugs toward the United States,” noting that Customs and Border Protection seized 6,000 pounds more cocaine at all US borders in the seven months following the strikes than in the seven months before.As Sanho Tree, who directs the Institute for Policy Studies’ Drug Policy Project, put it, “It wouldn’t be the first time this administration just made up something out of whole cloth.”

May 9, 2026 - World

A veteran State Department negotiator predicted that as the Trump administration struggles to find an off-ramp out of the Iran war, a ground invasion seems more likely."The administration is frustrated," David Miller told CNN on Saturday, saying that Trump will likely try "to go back to Project Freedom with some variation," referring to the short-lived effort to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has a blockade.The difference with a new attempt at Project Freedom would be "the deployment of ground troops on one of those key islands" that are part of Iran, like Larak Island, Miller said. Such an invasion "would surprise me," he added."They're looking for a way to break out of this," Miller said. "But right now, I suspect the situation is going to get worse before it gets worse."Miller made the comment as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with a Qatari mediator in Miami on Saturday to negotiate with Iran."It wouldn't surprise me if Iranians came back with a response that the administration doesn't like, or if they delay further," Miller said. "What's the alternative? Economic blockade and military strikes on both sides have created a situation where neither side is getting what they want."

May 9, 2026 - World

New information was revealed on Saturday about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to respond to the American passengers who have been stranded on a luxury cruise ship amid the hantavirus outbreak, according to reports.A CDC control crew was slated to meet with the 17 Americans who have been on board a cruise ship where the deadly rat-borne virus outbreak occurred, MS NOW reported. They were expected to be transported for observation to the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Nebraska. Michael Wadman, Director of the National Quarantine Unit, described how each person would have their own isolated space, similar to a hotel room, with access to WiFi, exercise equipment and food delivery. Health officials have said that no passengers on the ship currently have symptoms of the virus, MS NOW reported. Symptoms could come in days or weeks, so health officials have planned to monitor the passengers to see if they show signs of the virus. The MV Hondius has been stranded off Cape Verde throughout the week but is now back to sailing with the plan to disembark passengers in the Canary Islands starting on Monday. Three passengers have died aboard the ship, and eight confirmed cases have been connected to the cruise, prompting medical evacuations in South Africa, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.