Top World News

Aug 20, 2026 - World

Harp, a former One America News Network show host, has emerged as a key gatekeeper to the presidentSign up for the US Breaking News emailAn FBI team seized electronic devices from former US representative Eric Swalwell at the San Francisco airport on Saturday, then raided his home in Washington, DC, the next day, CNN reported Thursday.The raid is part of a federal investigation into the sexual assault allegations which ultimately drove the Bay Area Democrat to resign from office in April, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department subsequently opened criminal investigations on Swalwell. Continue reading...

Aug 20, 2026 - World

Claire Lomas had been filming a series for Apple TV in Amman, Jordan when she lost control of the aircraftThe death of a disability campaigner after a microlight crash while filming a TV programme for Apple was an accident, a coroner has concluded.An inquest heard on Thursday that Claire Lomas, 44, died of severe traumatic injuries on 22 August 2024, five weeks after a light aircraft that she had been piloting while filming a promotional video for Apple’s Vision Pro headset “veered off the runway” and crashed into a rock in Amman, Jordan, on 15 July. Continue reading...

Aug 20, 2026 - World

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was presented a real head-scratcher on Thursday, he admitted at a press conference. "We've got a spike in oil prices today that I don't really understand," Bessent said during a White House address.Bessent made this bold claim as the international price benchmark for oil rose 2.4 percent to reach $93.78 per barrel just before noon, Thursday, according to CNBC. Oil prices reached their highest level in more than three weeks earlier this week after Iran pledged the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed, Reuters reported on Tuesday. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to threaten that he would announce the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!”When Politico's Dasha Burns requested comment on the threat from a source inside the White House, she was told that Trump has decided to move away from military escalation and toward economic pressure."That means Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is more involved in the war than Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at this point," Burns explained. Yet, despite his position of power as both a war advisor and the leader of the department that balances (or tries to) the budget of the U.S. government, Bessent admitted he couldn't understand how continuing hostilities against a country that controls the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's primary waterway passages for the oil trade, would cause oil prices remain high.This left viewers scratching their heads, too. "Feels like it’s his job to know," replied political commentator Chris Robinson, "but I understand Bessent is just a humble soybean farmer who’s estimated worth is half a billion dollars,."Another political commentator, Jim Stewartson argued that it was a question of intelligence."In addition to being an amoral greedmonster, " he wrote, "Scott Bessent is unbearably dumb."But HFI Research, whose substack on energy policy reaches roughly 19,000 readers, argued it was a question of honesty, writing, "If you are going to lie, at least try."

Aug 20, 2026 - World

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning to return to live in Britain, six years after leaving for the US: a decision that was subject to intense media scrutiny. The couple and their two children are expected to relocate later in August to a non-royal residence.Nosheen Iqbal speaks to senior national editor Aaron Sharp – watch on YouTube Continue reading...

Aug 20, 2026 - World

Pre-tax profits rose at high street opticians to £429.7m in the year to February while sales rose 7% to £4.3bnSpecsavers has paid £12m to its parent company controlled by its founders Doug and Dame Mary Perkins after the high street optician’s profits increased by more than a quarter.The group operates nearly 3,000 optometry, audiology and ophthalmology businesses globally in at least eight countries, including more than 1,200 in the UK, through hundreds of independent partners. Continue reading...