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May 11, 2026 - World

The panel on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” had a good laugh at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s expense on Monday morning after he lost an online battle over the weekend with Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).Kelly has been a major target of Hegseth’s after he joined with other lawmakers who served in the military to advise current service members to remember their oath to the Constitution.Over the weekend, the fighting between the two flared up again after the Arizona Democrat took a new shot at Hegseth’s prosecution of Donald Trump’s war on Iran.Responding to a post on X from “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, who wrote, “After hearing the Pentagon classified brief on Iran war impact on US weapons stockpiles, Senator Mark Kelly says it is 'shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines.' He said the Tomahawks, ATACMS, SM-3, THAAD rounds, Patriot rounds, so those interceptor rounds to defend ourselves have been hit hard. He says it'll take years to replenish those stockpiles, which could affect a hypothetical US conflict with China,” Hegseth linked to it and complained about Kelly.“’Captain’ Mark Kelly strikes again. Now he’s blabbing on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a *CLASSIFIED* Pentagon briefing he received. Did he violate his oath…again? @DeptofWar legal counsel will review,” Hegseth threatened.As MS NOW host Jonathan Lemire noted, Kelly was armed and ready for Hegseth’s attack.“We had this conversation in a public hearing a week ago and you said it would take ‘years’ to replenish some of these stockpiles. That’s not classified, it’s a quote from you. This war is coming at a serious cost and you and the president still haven’t explained to the American people what the goal is,” Kelly fired back on X while including a clip of their interaction.The led the entire “Morning Joe” panel to start laughing, with co-host Joe Scarborough pointing out, “He’s such a joke.”He then added, “And instead of focusing on the war at hand, he's doing Donald Trump's bidding, trying to go after political enemies. Really, that's how he's spending his time.” - YouTube youtu.be

May 10, 2026 - World

The Trump administration continued its illegal bombing of small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific on Friday, killing two and leaving one survivor in its third such strike in five days.US Southern Command announced the attack on social media, claiming that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.”“Under [President Donald] Trump’s illegal orders, the US military conducted its third boat strike in five days against supposed drug smugglers, killing at least two. Each of these is a murder. Drug suspects should be arrested and prosecuted, not summarily executed,” former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth wrote on social media Saturday in response to the news.Friday’s strike marks the 57th by the Trump administration and raises the death toll from the boat-strike campaign, which experts say is illegal even if every boat targeted is ferrying drugs, to 192.“What do you call a US citizen who smuggles drugs, SOUTHCOM? A ‘narco-terrorist’?” social media user Andrew Marinelli said in response to the Southern Command announcement. “If a US citizen [allegedly] drove drugs into Canada and they blew him away with a drone strike, would you accept it?”The administration has also not provided evidence for its claims that the boats belong to drug traffickers, and relatives of the victims say at least some of those killed were simply on the water to fish.Friday’s strike was notable in that it left behind a survivor and that US Southern Command said it had activated the US Coast Guard to conduct a search and rescue operation.The announcement may reflect a response to backlash after news broke last year that, in the administration’s first such strike, commanders had ordered a vessel bombed twice when it became clear there were survivors, in keeping with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s directive to “kill everybody.”Despite scrutiny, the campaign has continued and even escalated in the past few weeks. There have been three such bombings since the beginning of May, according to The Intercept: One on May 4 in the Caribbean that killed two, one on May 5 in the Pacific that killed three, and the Pacific strike on May 8 that killed two. The reported survivor remains missing.While the Trump administration claims the strikes have dramatically reduced the flow of illegal drugs into the US, evidence reveals this is not the case, according to an Intercept analysis published May 4.For example, Trump claimed that drugs entering the US by sea had decreased by 97%, but the administration’s own data contradicts this claim, retired Rear Adm. William Baumgartner told The Intercept.Adam Isacson, the director for defense oversight at human rights group Washington Office on Latin America, said, “Really absurdly, there’s been no impact on flows of drugs toward the United States,” noting that Customs and Border Protection seized 6,000 pounds more cocaine at all US borders in the seven months following the strikes than in the seven months before.As Sanho Tree, who directs the Institute for Policy Studies’ Drug Policy Project, put it, “It wouldn’t be the first time this administration just made up something out of whole cloth.”

May 9, 2026 - World

A veteran State Department negotiator predicted that as the Trump administration struggles to find an off-ramp out of the Iran war, a ground invasion seems more likely."The administration is frustrated," David Miller told CNN on Saturday, saying that Trump will likely try "to go back to Project Freedom with some variation," referring to the short-lived effort to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has a blockade.The difference with a new attempt at Project Freedom would be "the deployment of ground troops on one of those key islands" that are part of Iran, like Larak Island, Miller said. Such an invasion "would surprise me," he added."They're looking for a way to break out of this," Miller said. "But right now, I suspect the situation is going to get worse before it gets worse."Miller made the comment as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with a Qatari mediator in Miami on Saturday to negotiate with Iran."It wouldn't surprise me if Iranians came back with a response that the administration doesn't like, or if they delay further," Miller said. "What's the alternative? Economic blockade and military strikes on both sides have created a situation where neither side is getting what they want."

May 9, 2026 - World

New information was revealed on Saturday about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to respond to the American passengers who have been stranded on a luxury cruise ship amid the hantavirus outbreak, according to reports.A CDC control crew was slated to meet with the 17 Americans who have been on board a cruise ship where the deadly rat-borne virus outbreak occurred, MS NOW reported. They were expected to be transported for observation to the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Nebraska. Michael Wadman, Director of the National Quarantine Unit, described how each person would have their own isolated space, similar to a hotel room, with access to WiFi, exercise equipment and food delivery. Health officials have said that no passengers on the ship currently have symptoms of the virus, MS NOW reported. Symptoms could come in days or weeks, so health officials have planned to monitor the passengers to see if they show signs of the virus. The MV Hondius has been stranded off Cape Verde throughout the week but is now back to sailing with the plan to disembark passengers in the Canary Islands starting on Monday. Three passengers have died aboard the ship, and eight confirmed cases have been connected to the cruise, prompting medical evacuations in South Africa, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

May 9, 2026 - World

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has fueled speculation about whether he's planning to launch a 2028 presidential bid after he was seen DJing at a family wedding and entertaining reporters with rap lyrics, an analyst reported on Saturday. The Atlantic's Matt Viser described how Rubio's disposition and recent activities have raised questions over his future plans while Trump's cabinet manages a series of controversies and challenges, including President Donald Trump's ongoing Iran war, an affordability crisis and concerns over how the GOP will fare in the midterm elections. "It’s a low bar, perhaps, but no one in the Trump administration seems to be having more fun at the moment than Marco Rubio," Viser wrote. "Last weekend, he was acting as a DJ at a family wedding, headphones to his ear with head and hand pumping to the beat. Midweek, the secretary of state was at the podium in the White House briefing room, spitting rap lyrics and cracking jokes. (“Two more questions!” he said, before entertaining seven more.) And toward the end of the week, he was in Vatican City, being escorted through marble hallways by members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard for an audience with Pope Leo XIV, who has been criticized by the president and vice president."Despite the problems ahead for the Trump administration, Rubio "comes across as the happy warrior, not the angry one—the one offering lighthearted jokes more than brash confrontation," Viser explained."But Rubio—the guy who once became a meme because of the way he sat uncomfortably on an Oval Office couch, looking exhausted with his many jobs—suddenly looks joyful and light," Viser wrote. "He seemed to be everywhere all at once this week, followed by a hum and then a buzz of: Hmm, he sure looks like he’s running in 2028."Rubio has not yet confirmed his plans — or what his closed-door conversations with the president or pope were like. "Would there be a phone call between the pope and the president anytime soon? 'Um, I don’t know. Maybe? I don’t know. I mean, it could happen,'" Viser added. "By the end of the week, it was clear: The same could be said about a 2028 presidential run."