Top World News

May 18, 2026 - World

One of President Donald Trump's ambassadors has been linked to a scandal-ridden movement in Canada because of his involvement with a right-wing voting group, according to a new report. Pete Hoekstra, Trump's ambassador to Canada, has been linked to a separatist group in Alberta that has coordinated with a right-wing group in Michigan called 10xVotes for more than a year, PressProgress reported on Monday. The separatist group, known as the Centurion Project, is under investigation by Canadian authorities after it obtained private information about more than 3 million Alberta voters. A lawyer recently told the CBC that the data breach is one of the “the most significant privacy incidents” in Canadian history. "The issue of foreign support of Alberta separatist groups has been an open question since the US State Department confirmed earlier this year that Trump administration officials have held multiple meetings with Alberta separatist leaders," PressProgress reported. Hoekstra has claimed he "was not aware" of the relationship between The Centurion Project and 10xVotes, although some of the comments from David Parker, who leads The Centurion Project, have called that claim into question, according to the report. For instance, Parker has claimed that Hoekstra's group has been advising The Centurion Project behind-the-scenes for about a year. The report cites claims Parker made during a recent podcast interview, where he said the Centurion Project is the result of his collaboration with 10xVotes. The two groups also appear to be using almost identical apps to spur low-engagement voters to vote, according to the report. "First rolled out during the 2024 US presidential election, its backers tout 10xVotes as the secret weapon that helped deliver Michigan’s 15 electoral college votes to Donald Trump," according to the report. "Michigan Republicans are currently holding state-wide information sessions about 10xVotes in hopes that the technology will help send right-wing candidates to Congress after this fall’s midterm elections.""A version of 10xVotes’ Michigan app reviewed by PressProgress has a substantially similar interface and functionalities as the Centurion Project’s app in Alberta," it added.

May 18, 2026 - World

A former lawmaker and critic of President Donald Trump slammed the president's Iran war decisions following his announcement on Monday to stop a planned military attack amid "serious negotiations" and telling the military to be ready "on a moment's notice."Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told CNN that Trump's Truth Social post announcement stating alleged negotiations underway and that an attack had been stopped by allies was putting the United States in a bad position."This is so damaging," Kinzinger said. "You know, regardless of let's just be, you know, agnostic on whether he should attack again or not for the moment when you make threats and then you're eager to back down from those threats, which he has been every single time. I mean, he's gone from 'we will destroy an entire civilization' to 'we have a deal,' which we never actually had, by the way, claiming the strait's open, claiming it's closed, claiming he was going to pull the trigger on May 19th."But Trump's decision-making was troubling, and he has not offered a clear strategy for the war, Kinzinger argued."One of the greatest things the United States had is our ability to say, we will do something," Kinzinger explained. "The enemy knows that, and then hopefully we won't have to do that. This has just been like threat, back off, threat, back off. And I haven't seen the Iranians move in any way here. And we find ourselves in the worst-case scenario, which is a closed strait, this nebulous future. And gas is now having to price in, and futures are pricing in the uncertainty." Kinzinger argued that the United States was lacking a strategy to exit the ongoing military conflict."That's what's crazy, is we did go in with overwhelming military power. And now in the White House, they are trying to figure out what Iran needs to be satiated to be pleased," Kinzinger said. "And I mean, this is why they should have thought this through.""If you're going to do something like attack Iran, you have to know what the contingencies are," Kinzinger added. "And honestly, those contingencies, you have to be willing to do them. Otherwise, you probably should not have gone to this fight in the first place. And so, what is the future here look like? You know, I don't know. Are they going to find something that Iran wants? Maybe are they going to actually denuclearize them or whatever? I don't know. Is there going to be an Iranian, you know, toll on every ship that passes?"Kinzinger warned about what could be next for future generations."But I know this much. I know that my kid, who's 4 1/2 years old, is going to probably be in a country that has a worse situation based on what's going on because of this war, than had we done nothing," Kinzinger said. "I think Donald Trump needs to figure out if we resume hostilities with Iran, you need to have a plan in place to reopen that strait and stick to the use of the military until it's done, or quit these threats, because this is just making it worse."

May 17, 2026 - World

Renowned international security expert Robert Pape issued a dire warning on Sunday that an irreversible “critical point” had been reached in the U.S. war against Iran, one that risks sparking global shortages and economic disruptions on a scale not seen in decades.“Two months ago, I warned that the Iran war was not simply creating an oil price spike. It was creating the conditions for shortages, supply disruptions, and eventually economic contraction,” Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, warned in an analysis published Sunday on his Substack. “That transition is now beginning.”Among Iran’s first responses to the “unprovoked” attack from the United States and Israel was to close the Strait of Hormuz – a critical shipping waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil trade historically flowed – to U.S.-aligned vessels. Predictably, the strait’s partial closure sent oil prices skyrocketing.With the war now stretching into its 78th day as of Sunday, the strait’s closure has finally exhausted worldwide “buffers” that have helped to slow the economic impact from disrupting trade through what is among the busiest shipping channels on earth, Pape warned.“The critical point is no longer oil prices alone,” Pape wrote. “The world’s emergency buffers – inventories, reserves, subsidies, and logistical workarounds – are beginning to fail simultaneously.”Signs of existing stockpiles or resources still in transit being exhausted have already reached the United States. The final shipment of oil from the Strait of Hormuz before its partial closure arrived in California earlier this month, and reporting suggests a major shortage of motor oil may be imminent.

May 16, 2026 - World

Hundreds of diplomats are being forced out of their jobs by the Trump administration despite ongoing crises around the world, according to a new report. According to CNN, the State Department finalized the firing of nearly 250 foreign service officers via email on Friday. "Your reduction in force separation will be effective today," the email read. "Thank you again for your service to the Department."The reduction in forces also impacted staff that would have been able to "provide guidance on the war in Iran," former officials told CNN. On top of that, "unprecedented numbers of people are choosing to leave" U.S. foreign services, David Kostelancik, a retired diplomat, told CNN. "Roughly 2,000 foreign service officers left the State Department last year," CNN reported based on numbers from the American Foreign Service Association. Another 100 diplomatic posts around the world in tense areas like the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia still lack a Senate-confirmed ambassador, CNN added. "The most sensitive diplomatic negotiations, on fraught topics like ending the war in Iran and securing an end to the Ukraine conflict, are being led by business associates and family members of President Donald Trump," CNN reported. "Often without teams of experienced diplomats with regional expertise."

May 16, 2026 - World

Donald Trump’s return from Beijing without any provable examples of successful negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping was yet another sign that, whatever lofty plans he had in store for the second year of his second term, they are easier to boast about than achieve.According to analysis by the Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum and Isaac Arnsdorf, the China summit didn’t include any measurable wins for a president who has had a rough year so far.“President Donald Trump was riding the early high of his return to power last year when he took his first major foreign trip and declared that he would make a sharp break from years of U.S. nation-building around the world,” they wrote.Exactly one year after his first major foreign trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates — complete with golden swords and honor guards on Arabian steeds — Trump arrived in China at a vastly different moment, the Post is reporting. Inflation is spiraling, the Iran conflict has ensnared U.S. military forces, energy prices are soaring, and his approval ratings are cratering.This time, there were no sweeping declarations about how Trump's America would manage the world, the Post is reporting. Instead, there was Chinese President Xi Jinping, described as being "respectful but businesslike, welcoming but unbending" on issues that are U.S. priorities.Trump came to Beijing hoping to secure trade deals. Xi had other priorities, the report noted. The Chinese president made clear that Taiwan's fate, not investment opportunities, was China's top concern — yanking the spotlight from Trump's preferred focus to warn of "clashes and even conflicts" with the United States should disagreements over the disputed island be mismanaged.Trump left Friday with a promise of Xi visiting the White House in September and trade deals that proved largely disappointing. Boeing's stock dropped 8 percent between Trump's arrival and departure — a stark measure of investor skepticism about the agreements reached.The president has since claimed triumph that the trip enabled top U.S. business executives to meet the Chinese leader, but offered little evidence of actual transactions resulting from the meetings.Most of Trump's signature foreign policy initiatives "have fallen by the wayside," according to the Post. The Ukraine war still rages despite his promises to end it swiftly. Many of his tariffs were struck down by the Supreme Court. Iran diplomacy has been abandoned entirely in favor of military conflict.The collapse reflects a far cry from Trump's more "expansive ambitions" for reshaping U.S.-China relations last year, when the two leaders agreed to meet four times in 2026. With Iran now preoccupying Trump and weighing down the global economy, there is little room for retrenchment.With slumping approval ratings and a faltering economy, Trump now travels the world stage "significantly weakened" compared to a year ago, Birnbaum and Arnsdorf predicted.