Top World News

Apr 14, 2026 - World

Donald Trump's Iran struggle has exposed a fundamental truth: the world no longer fears American threats, and traditional allies are abandoning Washington to form new partnerships.According to Politico's Nahal Toosi, Trump faces a wall of resistance from longtime U.S. allies who are actively forming new alliances and sidelining America as a diplomatic partner. In recent days, multiple global players have openly defied the president, exposing the severe limits of American influence.The core problem is philosophical. "Trump and his aides often appear to operate as if most other people on the planet are 'non-player characters' in a video game," and they believe that America can use "threats, economic muscle and military action to bend other capitals to its will," Toosi observed.But foreign policy doesn't work that way and the Politico analyst suggested the current administration is "not adjusting well" to a changed world.Trump shows no signs of learning from this reality. Richard Haass, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, observed: "If there were an appreciation that bullying was no longer a likely to succeed tactic you'd see a move away from it, but there's no real sign that Trump is doing so."The problem is structural. "He is surrounded by 'yes' people," one senior European diplomat fumed.Diplomacy requires reciprocity — a concept Trump's team appears incapable of grasping. "If you want something from somebody you have to give them something, unless like in World War II they've truly surrendered. It can't just be 'we're going to keep beating you,'" said a Western diplomat based in the Middle East.Trump's tariffs are accelerating the divorce. Other countries are actively finding new trading partners beyond the U.S., reducing their economic reliance on America. As nations decrease their military and economic dependence on Washington, they become less likely to heed American demands in the future.The fundamental misunderstanding runs deeper. Many foreign affairs experts worry that Trump treats global conflicts as real estate deals, reducing complex geopolitical issues to mere land disputes. But "identity, politics and the desire to simply survive as a people is what fuels many conflicts," not purely material calculations,' he wrote.Trump and his team "fail to realize that people tend to fight for what gives their life meaning beyond the purely rational or material cost-benefit analysis," according to a former Latin American official granted anonymity to speak candidly about the sensitive topic.

Apr 13, 2026 - World

Singer Katy Perry denied allegations that she had sexually assaulted actress Ruby Rose, according to reports on Monday. The "Orange is the New Black" actor accused the pop singer of sexually assaulting her at a nightclub in Melbourne, Australia, while Rose was in her early 20s, TMZ reported. She made the graphic comment in a post on Threads on Sunday. Perry's representative released a statement in response to the allegation: "The allegations being circulated on social media by Ruby Rose about Katy Perry are not only categorically false, they are dangerous reckless lies. Ms. Rose has a well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named."

Apr 13, 2026 - World

Democratic efforts to constrain Donald Trump's Iran war are gaining unexpected momentum. More Republican lawmakers are privately signaling they're ready to join Democrats on a war powers resolution — and the defections may accelerate dramatically by month's end.According to MS NOW, Democrats believe "there's a pathway to success" on forcing votes this week that would dampen hostilities in Iran.The political math is shifting in Democrats' favor. While they would need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to override Trump's almost-certain veto, a privileged war powers measure only requires a simple majority to pass — a threshold that appears increasingly achievable as GOP support erodes, MS NOW reported.The breaking point could happen on April 29. One House GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity, told MS NOW that "a lot of Republicans" would be ready to support a war powers resolution by then."This issue is already coming ripe at the end of this month, and if they don't come to us by then, they're in violation of the law. And that's when you'll see many of us saying no más," they told MS NOW.Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) framed the political stakes sharply: "Every day that Republicans stand in the way of Democratic efforts to end this war is another day that they own the chaos, the bloodshed and the economic volatility that has resulted."Senate Republicans are already showing cracks. So far, only Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has voted with Democrats on three separate Iran war powers resolutions over the past month. But Trump's apocalyptic rhetoric is pushing other Republicans toward the exit, MS NOW reported.Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) directly rebuked Trump's threat to wipe out a "whole civilization." "It cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran. It undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home," Murkowski wrote.Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was equally damning about Trump's Easter Truth Social posts threatening to annihilate Iran's infrastructure and demanding Tehran open the Strait of Hormuz in a social media post loaded with obscenities."Completely inappropriate," Collins said of the threats. "And the subsequent post in which he threatened to essentially annihilate the whole country of Iran is also not conducive to the negotiations that will shortly be underway."

Apr 13, 2026 - World

The 40-day war with Iran is becoming a political millstone around both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump's necks — and Israeli public opinion shows that the nation believes the operation has spectacularly failed to deliver on its promises.According to the New York Times, new polling reveals widespread Israeli disillusionment with the conflict and its meager results. The war in Iran and the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon have left Israelis despairing over how little was actually accomplished compared to what leaders promised.The scorecard is devastating.Regime change in Iran? Senior government and military leaders have been killed, but it is still the same regime. Destruction of Iran's nuclear program? Damaged or delayed, perhaps, but not ended. Elimination of Iran's ballistic missile threat? Reduced, perhaps, but still a threat. The strategic damage extends beyond military failure, the Times reported. Israel has been reduced to a subordinate position, forced to accept whatever Washington decides. When Israel conducted a furious wave of airstrikes on Beirut on Wednesday that violated the day-old ceasefire, Trump scolded the country — demonstrating Israel's lack of independent agency, the Times wrote.According to an opinion poll released Sunday by the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, barely a third of Israelis believe that when Israel and the United States disagree, Israel can act on its own judgment.A separate poll from Agam Institute and Hebrew University of Jerusalem found even more damning results: "Three times as many Israelis see the war as a failure than a victory," the Times reported. Even more striking, 70 percent believe the ceasefire reflects an American concession to Iran, and two-thirds oppose it.The psychological toll is equally severe. "Many Israelis have become pessimistic, fatigued, disillusioned and distrustful of the information that they are receiving," according to the Agam-Hebrew University survey.Israeli analyst Yaakov Katz, co-founder of the Middle East-America Dialogue, said, "What's the Israeli story today? It's a narrative of a country that's constantly fighting, and presents no alternatives except for more war."

Apr 12, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's latest effort to settle the war with Iran proves that he is "the most powerful idiot in the history of the world," according to one columnist. David Rothkopf, a columnist at The Daily Beast, argued in a new column on Sunday that Trump's decision to impose a retaliatory blockade on the Strait of Hormuz showed the president is operating with the "strategic acumen of a four-year-old in a fight on a pre-school playground." The Iranian regime has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to the U.S. and Israel launching a coordinated bombing campaign across Iran in late February. The closure has sent global energy prices skyrocketing. "He is undoubtedly the most powerful idiot in the history of the world," Rothkopf wrote. "Both his idiocy and his power are unparalleled. On the latter point, his position as president and commander-in-chief of the most dominant, potent nation confirms that no idiot since the beginning of time has ever been in a position to do so much damage to so many people as a consequence of his idiocy," he added. "On the prior point, just look at the record," Rothkopf continued. "The misbegotten, ill-considered, going-from-bad-freaking-worse every damn day War with Iran illustrates Trump’s manifold mental deficiencies with shocking clarity—and, unfortunately for all of us, the damage he is doing seems certain to touch more lives in more egregious ways going forward than it already has."