Top World News

May 20, 2026 - World

MS NOW host Joe Scarborough and “Morning Joe” regular John Heilemann had a good laugh on Wednesday morning over a report that Donald Trump and the Israelis had a grand plan to reinstall Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the leader of Iran.According to the New York Times report, “… the audacious plan, developed by the Israelis and which Mr. Ahmadinejad had been consulted about, quickly went awry, according to the U.S. officials who were briefed on it.”The report added, “Mr. Ahmadinejad was injured on the war’s first day by an Israeli strike” and that “after the near miss he became disillusioned with the regime change plan.”On “Morning Joe,” the Times' Elizabeth Buhmiller prompted the conversation by noting that, when it comes to Iran, Trump is “ …kind of stuck in a corner. He — it's a real problem.”Pointing to the aborted Ahmadinejad plan, she added, “It just shows you how unplanned and by the seat of their pants this war is.”Co-host Scarborough then piled on as Heilemann burst into laughter. “It ended up all the time the moderate was Ahmadinejad, who would have known they were going to blow him out of prison, almost killed him,” Scarborough sarcastically pointed out as Heilemann laughed. “Of course, this is like, this is straight out of — this is, this is straight out of a South Park episode or a movie.”“What was the movie where they had the American heroes that saved Paris by blowing up the Eiffel Tower and everything else?” he joked. “Great movie a couple of years ago. But anyway, that's what, that's what we were doing.” - YouTube youtu.be

May 20, 2026 - World

A humanitarian group says that funding cuts by the Trump administration left a region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo "dangerously exposed" to a rare strain of Ebola that has killed more than a hundred people, according to a new report. The International Rescue Committee told Politico that losing funding under the Trump administration in March 2025 forced it to reduce early-warning systems to detect Ebola in the region. "Funding cuts have left the region dangerously exposed," Heather Reoch Kerr, the IRC's Congo country director, told Politico. "The sharp rise in reported cases over the last few days reflects the reality that surveillance systems are now catching up with transmission that has likely been occurring for some time."With the most recent outbreak of Ebola, more than 500 people are suspected to be infected with the virus, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO declared the outbreak, which started in April, a public health emergency over the weekend. The strain spreading is Bundibugyo, a rare variant for which no licensed vaccine or targeted treatment exists. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that the "scale and speed" of the current outbreak is alarming, according to Politico. Kerr explained that the IRC shut down "health and preparedness work" in three sections of the Ituri Province, which is "the epicenter of the outbreak" in the DRC right now, Politico reported.

May 19, 2026 - World

A foreign minister accused of a slew of crimes, including stealing from a fund for crime victims, was able to flee his country with the help of a Trump official, according to a new report. Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro faces more than two dozen charges in his country related to alleged misuse of funds for political gain, according to reporting by Reuters. He was a member of Poland's right-wing nationalist Law and Justice Party. Ziobro originally fled his country in 2025 to live in Hungary, where the Trump-endorsed authoritarian former Prime Minister Viktor Orban gave him asylum. Soon after Orban lost his election in April to a pro-EU rival, Ziobro came to the U.S. in May, per reporting by Reuters. According to three sources who spoke to Reuters, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau "instructed senior State Department officials to facilitate and approve a visa for a fugitive former Polish cabinet minister." The new Hungarian prime minister, Peter Magyar, "had said that he would extradite him to Poland on his first day in office," according to Reuters. Landau was able to secure a visa for Ziobro just ahead of Magyar's swearing-in on May 9, Reuters added. "While the Trump administration has made it a priority to support conservative views in Europe, granting a visa to a politician facing criminal charges by a U.S.-allied government is highly unusual," according to Reuters. "Reuters described Ziobro as "the architect of changes to the Polish judicial system that the EU has said undermined the rule of law during the 2015-2023 rule of the conservative Law and Justice party." Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters on Tuesday that "we will certainly be very consistent, and no one can expect us to give up" on trying to bring Ziobro into Polish court, according to Reuters.

May 19, 2026 - World

Donald Trump's latest attempt to win over the people of Greenland crashed and burned after the president dispatched Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to the Danish territory as a goodwill ambassador — only to have locals greet him with middle fingers and rejections of his giveaway MAGA merchandise.According to the New York Times, Landry arrived in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, on Sunday claiming he was on a mission to "make a bunch of friends." Within hours, the Times reported, he got nothing but cold shoulders and dismissals. Landry toured the town in cold drizzle, offering free MAGA hats to Greenlandic children, only to be greeted with refusals. He then attempted to sweeten his pitch by telling some kids that if they visited his Louisiana mansion, they could have "all the chocolate chip cookies you can eat."Landry's delegation carried "cardboard boxes stuffed with MAGA hats," but few residents wanted them, the report said.As Landry traveled about on Sunday, he was the recipient of "scowls," with local Hanne Hansen bluntly stating, "They should fix their own country first," and her friend Vivi Nielsen adding, "They need to get out," the Times added.The next day, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen expressed his country's firm rejection of American pressure. "We have our red lines. And no matter how many chocolate cookies we get, we are not going to change them," Nielsen told Denmark's public broadcaster DR.The offer of free MAGA hats was noteworthy in that Greenlandic entrepreneurs have already had success selling red baseball caps reading "Make America Go Away"Landry's visit comes as the Trump administration is pursuing aggressive demands on Greenland far beyond Trump's earlier threats to seize the island. The U.S. is demanding effective veto power over major investment deals to exclude Russia and China, and is pushing to insert a "forever clause" into decades-old military agreements ensuring U.S. troops remain on the island even if Greenland becomes independent, the Times' Maya Tekeli and Jeffrey Gettleman reported.Greenlandic officials were particularly troubled by an American doctor accompanying Landry to assess Greenland's medical system — one of the top reasons Greenlanders cite for not wanting to join the United States.

May 19, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he was "an hour away" from striking Iran when Middle East allies asked him to stop.Trump was speaking to press at the White House ballroom construction site when he started taking questions. He was asked about the reversed decision on Monday to stop a strike in Iran after several countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates that said they needed more time while "serious negotiations are now taking place." He signaled the conflict was not over, although the military operation was postponed."We may have to give them another big hit," Trump said.Q: How close were you to striking Iran yesterday?TRUMP: I was an hour away pic.twitter.com/LbsR6X5nWe— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 19, 2026