Top World News

Jun 8, 2026 - World

Thirty-nine people taken near Magamin Diddi village in Maradun municipality, north-west Zamfara state, police sayArmed bandits in north-west Nigeria abducted dozens of villagers whom they invited to a meeting about potential peace negotiations, authorities and residents said on Monday, highlighting the region’s worsening security.According to local police, 39 people were seized on Sunday during a meeting in the forest near Magamin Diddi village in the Maradun municipality of north-west Zamfara state. But some residents and officials believe the number of those abducted could be as high as 50. Continue reading...

Jun 8, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's abrupt walkout on "Meet the Press" over the weekend shows his second term is "already finished," an analyst revealed on Monday. Following his mid-interview exit from NBC's Kristen Welker, Trump appears to have given up amid mounting frustration, according to MS NOW political analyst Matthew Bartlett. And while he maintains his control over the Republican Party, he has lost his standing among voters who question his economic priorities and policies."In the year and a half since Trump’s return, it seems everything has changed — except the economy," Bartlett wrote. "It is very hard to say that the president’s second act has improved the lives or financial status of many, unless of course your last name is Trump. His second administration has been a historic misread of a political mandate, and a tragic mistake of a presidency."Trump has lost touch with what voters are concerned about, Bartlett argued."The president has lost all credibility on the economy, the No. 1 priority of the American public," Bartlett wrote. "He has lost control over ending the war. The administration is rudderless. Trump is enamored with being president, yet wants nothing to do with the job. His Cabinet members turn their attention from serving the people to appeasing their boss. Many top officials now hold their jobs in an acting capacity — not just in title but in their emphasis on performance for an audience of one."The political focus will now shift to the 2026 midterm elections and then the 2028 presidential election."In a matter of months, attention will soon move from the White House to the campaign trail, and even successful presidents struggle to keep the spotlight off their potential successors," Bartlett wrote. "Candidates from both parties will have a chance to define themselves and offer their ideas on everything from artificial intelligence to taxes to war and peace. America’s next act will be written not in the Oval Office or the halls of Congress, but in the town halls and events across America.""Meanwhile, the second Trump administration is already a lost cause at home and abroad. He has made himself a lame duck president, and is getting lamer every day," Bartlett added.

Jun 8, 2026 - World

A former Israeli diplomat reacted in real time to a social media post by President Donald Trump on the latest developments in the Iran war.The 79-year-old president demanded "Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting,'" and former Israeli consul general Alon Pinkas appeared minutes later on CNN to offer his analysis of the extremely short Truth Social post."This is something you would expect from the president to say, you know, the diplomatic lingo of show restraint, exercise caution, patience, and so on. It's clear that he, President Trump, had to make this statement, but basically what the statement is saying, you know, the underlining, the underlining logic of it is that 'this is not my war anymore, I, President Trump, this is not my war anymore – this is between Israel and Iran, and I'm not part of this, I'm pursuing negotiations to get a deal. Good deal, bad deal, mediocre deal, we could discuss this.'""Yeah, he's basically saying to Mr. Netanyahu, you're on your own, and he's basically saying to the Iranians, 'Well, 'you're not necessarily going to have a deal if you keep on shooting,'" Pinkas added. "But the bottom line is this: 'I'm not involved in this.'"Trump has been pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop attacks on Lebanon to give him space to pursue a deal with Iran to end the war, but he has ignored the president's warning and Israel and Iran have traded strikes over the weekend in the worst escalation since a truce in April."Netanyahu and Trump have a different political calculus," Pinkas said. "Trump is saying, 'I want to end this war and I can rein in Israel, and I and I will tell them what to do, and they will do what I tell them, and I call the shots,' etc., etc. Netanyahu, on the other hand, has defied Trump three times in the last three weeks with breaking violating the cease fire in Lebanon, with attacking the Dacia, which is the quarter the neighborhood, the area in Beirut where mostly is centered despite Trump's warnings and again last night when Iran launched a barrage of missiles. Trump called on Netanyahu to show restraint and exercise restraint and and not retaliate, and three times Netanyahu defied him.""Netanyahu is speaking to a domestic audience," he added. "He's got an election in two or three months, either in September or October, three or four months. So Netanyahu wants to brag that I stood up to the American president and came to national security and came to the defense of Israel. I stood up, and only I could do this. What Mr. Trump is doing in stating more than once that he calls the shots and Netanyahu will have no choice but to accept he's talking not necessarily about the ceasefire, but about a a framework or a provisional or a memorandum type of deal with Iran." - YouTube youtu.be

Jun 8, 2026 - World

The Yemeni Houthis announced early Monday they would impose a “complete ban” on Israeli sea vessels from passing through the Red Sea, a partial blockade that risks hitting global trade with a “two-front crisis” as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains disrupted, several outlets reported.“We declare a complete ban on enemy navigation in the Red Sea and we consider any Zionist movements to be military targets for our forces,” said Houthi spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Al Saree in a televised statement released on Monday, according to the United Arab Emirates news outlet The National.“We will respond to escalation with escalation and our operations will intensify in line with the battle and in conjunction with the axis of jihad and resistance."The announcement comes in response to Israel’s strikes on Iran Sunday, itself a response to Iranian strikes on northern Israel as retaliation for Israel’s siege on Beirut, Lebanon.While not as critical to global trade as the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea is still a major shipping waterway, with around 12% of global trade passing through the channel, “including 30% of global container traffic,” according to The Guardian. Together, disruptions to both shipping waterways would likely further exacerbate supply shocks sparked by President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran.“The two waterways together carry an estimated 30% of global container shipping and approximately 22% of the world's seaborne oil supply, according to analysis by The Middle East Insider,” reads a report from Insurance Business Magazine. “A combined disruption places an estimated US$10 billion per day of global trade at risk.”YEMENI HOUTHIS ANNOUNCE NAVAL BLOCKADE ON ISRAEL IN THE RED SEA pic.twitter.com/AWSP9pEgvI— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) June 8, 2026

Jun 8, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump publicly pleaded with Israel and Iran to halt their fighting early Monday as the two countries traded their worst strikes since the April truce, threatening to collapse the peace deal Trump had declared was days away from completion."Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting,'" Trump posted on Truth Social at 5:36 a.m. Eastern. "President DONALD J. TRUMP."The all-caps signature did not appear to have the desired effect. By morning, Israel was defending fresh waves of Iranian missiles — with CNN's Oren Liebermann reporting interceptions visible over Jerusalem — while Iran threatened to target all oil and gas facilities associated with the U.S. and Israel if attacks on its energy infrastructure continued.The escalation unraveled a week of optimistic diplomacy. Trump had told the Financial Times just days earlier that negotiations were "very close" and predicted a deal would be announced this week. He had also told Netanyahu to hold off on retaliating against Iran, according to a U.S. official — an instruction Netanyahu appeared to ignore.The sequence: Iran fired close to 30 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the IDF, with Yemen's Houthi rebels launching two more in the first such attacks since April. Israel responded with two waves of strikes on Iran, targeting aerial defense systems in the first wave and a petrochemical facility in the second. Iran then struck petrochemical infrastructure in Haifa, with footage showing missiles bearing the message in three languages: "You will regret this."Iran's Foreign Ministry said the U.S. "bears responsibility" for Israel's actions as a party to the April ceasefire. Iran also called "absurd" any suggestion that frozen Iranian assets could be redirected to compensate U.S. allies for war damages.The financial fallout was immediate. Brent crude surged nearly 5 percent to $97.52 a barrel. Asian stock markets tumbled, with South Korea's KOSPI plunging more than 8 percent.Pope Leo XIV, speaking at the Spanish parliament in Madrid on a peace-focused visit, called war "a painful defeat of the capacity to negotiate" as the strikes unfolded. Israel's military said it was preparing for at least several days of fighting and the possibility of a prolonged campaign.Trump told Fox News the Iranian attack "certainly is not going to help negotiations" and called on Iran to "get back to the table and make a deal." He had previously told the Financial Times that Israel "would have to accept any deal" the U.S. reaches with Iran, saying "I call all the shots."On Monday morning, that bold claim was being tested in real time.