Top World News

Aug 16, 2026 - World

President, 80, vows to keep far-right from power as Flávio Bolsonaro tells supporters he will ‘fight this system’Brazil’s leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has launched his campaign for a historic fourth term and vowed that as long as he lived he would not allow the “shameless” right to return to power.Addressing a sea of supporters in São Bernardo do Campo, the industrial city where his political career began nearly half a century ago, the 80-year-old politician reminded voters of the chaos and violence that unfolded during the 2018-22 presidency of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, whose son Flávio Bolsonaro will face Lula in October’s presidential election. Continue reading...

Aug 16, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's administration has quietly "weaponized" a power cloaked in secrecy to punish his critics and prop up corrupt power brokers, according to a new report. Trump's government has been revoking the visas of foreign leaders, judges and journalists while quietly reinstating those of like-minded allies, the New York Times reported Sunday.“No recent American administration ever did this kind of open attack on freedom of expression” said John Feeley, a career diplomat. “A congressman or a prosecutor without a U.S. visa...is somebody who is flying with a broken wing.”Past State departments have also revoked visas but mostly to keep security threats out of the country or fight corruption, the Times reported.It is difficult to quantify the tactic as visa records are confidential, but the State Department said in a statement to the Times that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other U.S. officials have “broad discretionary authority” to cancel visas “whenever and wherever."Johana Obando, a Costa Rican lawmaker whose personal and diplomatic visas were canceled, said she felt like the Trump administration was sending her a message. “It is a way of intimidating decision makers to benefit the United States,” she said. The Trump administration also rewards others whom critics say it should not.“Corruption, human rights violations or judicial interference no longer matter,” Ana María Méndez Dardón, of the rights group Washington Office on Latin America, told the Times. At least three senior Salvadoran officials whom former President Joe Biden considered too corrupt or anti-democratic to earn visas have benefited, according to the report."Visa revocations have also been used to suppress criticism of the Trump administration, or even of U.S.-aligned foreign leaders," the report stated. "In Panama, for example, after two politicians criticized a sweeping security pact between their country and the United States, they were notified that their U.S. visas had been revoked."

Aug 16, 2026 - World

UK has refused resettlement application despite ‘years of loyal service’ that have resulted in ‘constant fear’ of reprisalsA man has received threats from the Taliban after his work for the Afghan police was revealed by a Ministry of Defence leak and the UK refused his application for resettlement.Hamid* worked for the Afghan national police special unit and received certificates for his work signed by senior British figures praising his “dedication, unparalleled service and leadership”. His details were also included in an accidental 2022 leak by an MoD official that identified 18,700 Afghans who had worked with or for the British government. Continue reading...

Aug 15, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump boasted Saturday morning about how well he gets along with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un — even if he does appear "unfriendly." In a Saturday morning post, Trump shared a picture of himself gazing into Kim's eyes in which they almost appear to be holding hands."Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we're smiling," Trump wrote. "Kim Jong un and I get along GREAT! President DONALD J. Trump."Kim presides over one of the world's most repressive states, and human rights groups and the United Nations have documented a long record of atrocities under his rule. Since he took power in 2011, he's deepened his country's nuclear posture and blamed the U.S. for worsening global instability.The post was accompanied by a slew of Truth Social posts, including one that pushed the story of vandalism at the World War II memorial. Another featured a screenshot from a Fox News segment that called Trump the "influencer-in-chief."One of the posts that immediately followed his Kim photo was a Fox News segment with Lara Trump attacking Democrats as communists, ironic considering he was touting his friendship with the leader of a communist country.Branding Democrats as communists has become a central Trump midterm attack line as progressives backed by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have won a string of House primaries. Reporters have repeatedly noted that Trump conflates democratic socialism with communism, and his recent posting spree made his position on communism more unclear.A couple of other posts shared reports by Trump ally John Solomon from Just the News that went after another communist country, China, and that defended Trump's tariffs.Trump and Kim met three times during Trump's first term, including a 2019 Hanoi summit that collapsed and a DMZ handshake that made him the first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korea. No denuclearization deal ever came of it, though.

Aug 15, 2026 - World

Campaigners fear deeper diplomatic contacts are undermining demands for improvements in human rights The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses.Five years after the Taliban took power, an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare. Continue reading...