Top World News

May 20, 2026 - World

Cuba's independence on May 20, 1902, isn't celebrated by its socialist government

May 20, 2026 - World

The Department of Defense has suspended a joint military advisory board with Canada that dates to World War II, escalating tensions between President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby announced the suspension of the Permanent Joint Board on Defense, claiming Canada has failed to adequately invest in military modernization, and he pointed specifically to remarks Carney had made at the World Economic Forum in January calling on "middle powers" to unite as a bulwark against superpowers, reported The Hill.Carney downplayed the move Tuesday, noting that Canada was spending 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense for the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, including a $40 billion investment in the North American Aerospace Defense Command. "I wouldn't overplay the importance of this," he said of the suspended board.But Canadian defense experts warned the decision signals a dangerous deterioration in one of the world's most important bilateral relationships."None of this political rhetoric serves anyone's purposes but China and Russia," said Andrea Charron, director of the Center for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.The board, composed of military and civilian advisers, typically meets once a year to consult on matters of mutual importance. Experts said its suspension is unlikely to disrupt day-to-day military cooperation between the two countries, given that other communication channels remain intact — but said the symbolism carries real weight.Trump's frustrations with Carney have been building for months. Canada is renegotiating a trade agreement with the U.S., recently awarded Australia a contract to build its Arctic radar system, and is weighing the purchase of Swedish fighter jets over American-made F-35s.Defense analyst David Perry said Canada has itself to blame, in part, for not using forums like the joint board more proactively. "I can imagine a scenario where somebody in the Pentagon said, 'What's on the agenda for this next meeting?' and thought the answer was underwhelming," he said.Carney has committed to raising defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035, though experts say achieving that target will require difficult trade-offs with domestic social programs.

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

Torrential rain and floods have hit parts of China, killing at least 12 people and forcing tens of thousands to evacuate

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.