Top World News

Apr 28, 2026 - World

A pivotal Wednesday Supreme Court hearing on the limits of Donald Trump’s immigration policies will contain a wild card in the form of how Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett will vote due to personal considerations.According to a report from the Washington Post, the case in question will dig deep into Donald Trump’s efforts to end temporary immigration protections for Haitians and if it holds up under constitutional scrutiny.For Barrett, she will have to weigh her personal feelings when deciding which side of the argument she agrees with.The justice and her husband, Jesse, adopted a child from Haiti in part because, as Barrett later recounted, “There were so many children in need," the Post is reporting before adding, "Vivian, then 14 months old, became Barrett’s second child around 2005. John Peter, flown out of Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake, became her fourth oldest. Barrett’s other kids — she has seven in all — are her biological children.""The Supreme Court will decide whether Trump can revoke temporary protected status for Haitian migrants, all of whom received that designation specifically because of the 2010 earthquake and its devastating aftermath," the report added.Legal scholars argue her personal connection to Haiti is impossible to ignore. "She's a human being, and it's hard to imagine it not spilling over in some fashion," said Neal Devins, a professor at William & Mary Law School who has researched Supreme Court justice behavior, told the Post.Devins cautioned, "Barrett's connection to Haiti is likely to be just one of an array of factors playing into her thinking, including her allegiance to originalist legal interpretation and the conservative legal tradition from which she comes."International adoption experts say personal bonds to a child's home country run deep, the report notes, adding that the adoption process itself requires extensive bonding visits with children in their native countries. "Adoptive parents typically build a strong connection with their child's native country," adoption experts explained to the Post's Julian Mark.Devins suggested Barrett may be conflicted between her judicial philosophy and her personal experience. "I think she wants her legacy to be one of being a law-oriented justice. That said, she may appreciate this case differently."The report notes Barrett has previously discussed Haiti's severe conditions. While she declined to comment on the pending case, the justice has publicly spoken about the difficult circumstances her adopted children endured in Haiti and the challenges they faced.

Apr 28, 2026 - World

Pirates appear to be taking advantage of international naval strength being diverted to Middle EastThree vessels have been hijacked off the coast of Somalia in the past week, raising fears of a resurgence in piracy around the Horn of Africa, and adding to the woes of the global shipping industry.The merchant vessel Sward was taken over on 26 April, a day after a dhow was seized. These followed the 21 April hijacking of Honour 25, a motor tanker carrying 18,000 barrels of oil, according to the Maritime Security Centre Indian Ocean (MSCIO), the tracking service of the EU’s naval force. Continue reading...

Apr 28, 2026 - World

Customs officials say group allegedly hid 5kg of ‘kush’ in false walls of bags on return from Bangkok holidayTwenty-two Buddhist monks are in Sri Lankan police custody after customs officials found 110kg of high-grade cannabis concealed in their luggage, the largest ever drug bust at Colombo’s main international airport.The group, mostly junior monks in training from temples across Sri Lanka, were alleged to have “carried about five kilos of the narcotic concealed within false walls in their luggage”, according to a Sri Lanka customs spokesperson. Continue reading...

Apr 28, 2026 - World

“There’s a day of reckoning coming.”That is the opinion of a prominent oil industry executive who is predicting a major surge in prices at the gas pump as Donald Trump’s war on Iran, and the accompanying closure of the Strait of Hormuz, drags on.As oil prices surge and supply dwindles globally, energy experts predict a catastrophic price shock that could decimate Republican chances in the midterms, reports Politico's Scott Waldman and Eli Stoklos.According to Dan Pickering, chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners, when summer driving season begins, gas prices will deliver a shock that "hits people in the face." "It will be painful because I can tell you that the stock market's ignoring this," he said.The timing will likely be politically toxic, the report notes, with another spike in prices predicted around Memorial Day potentially dealing a fatal blow to Republican chances for holding onto the House next year, as Americans' confidence in the economy continues to drop.A senior administration official dismissed expert warnings about the looming crisis, telling Politico: "Everyone feels like we can hopefully get back to even lower prices at the gas pump. That's always the goal. So everyone is very sober about the uptick in gas prices, but everyone feels confident that we can get it down before the end of the year." Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East Program at the Defense Priorities think tank, isn't buying the White House spin, and suggested Trump's optimistic messaging is backfiring. "By talking down the market so effectively, when the price spike becomes inevitable, it's going to hurt way worse because we'll have lost weeks or even months of time where producers could have been ramping up output," she told Politico.There are also oil industry complaints about Trump's optimistic spin on the crisis.Oil and gas executives are openly frustrated with Trump's market-manipulating rhetoric," the report notes with one insider complaining that the president "sends conflicting signals to operators who cannot plan rigs and capital budgets when prices swing wildly based on tweets." "Our hypothesis is [that] the paper market is being manipulated. This will likely lead to an even worse supply and demand imbalance and higher prices in the medium term (next 12 months)," the executive added.

Apr 27, 2026 - World

Pakistan officials dismiss Afghan media reports and official statements about strikes on university in Kunar province as ‘blatant lie’Mortars and missiles fired from Pakistan on Monday struck a university and civilian homes in north-eastern Afghanistan, killing seven people and wounding at least 85, Afghan officials said.Pakistan denied the accusation of targeting a university. Continue reading...