Top World News

May 5, 2026 - World

WHO says seven confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus on MV Hondius, including three passengers who diedWhat is hantavirus, the infection thought to have killed three on cruise ship?A British crew member was in need of urgent medical care and a passenger from the UK remained in a critical but stable condition following a suspected outbreak of hantavirus on a luxury cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean.Three people have died and medics on Monday were scrambling to evacuate two others from the MV Hondius, which set off in March from southern Argentina carrying 149 people from 23 countries. The crisis emerged late on Sunday after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was investigating a suspected outbreak. Continue reading...

May 4, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump's niece sounded off against her uncle's war in Iran in a new Substack essay on Monday. Mary Trump, a psychologist and author, argued that Americans are just starting to pay the "cost of chaos" of her uncle's war. She noted that the economic fallout from the war is "staggering," as the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas predicts a 2.9% drop in global GDP because of the war. "Donald entered this conflict despite explicit warnings from experts that it would be a catastrophic mistake," Trump wrote. "The consequences were foreseeable to anyone paying attention. What is now being proposed as a way out of the war amounts to a reset to the status quo that existed before, except under far worse conditions. That is not strategy. That is failure.""And the economic consequences are already here," she added. "According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States economy was already shaky before the Iran war. Now it is in real trouble. Growth is slowing. Prices are rising across the board. The ripple effects are being felt across multiple continents, including here at home."She also noted that her uncle's hypocrisy over the war is now impossible to ignore. "During the 2024 campaign, Donald made the price of eggs a centerpiece of his messaging," she wrote. "He blamed rising grocery costs on his predecessor, despite the fact that those price increases were largely driven by a widespread outbreak of avian flu and the necessary culling of poultry. That did not stop him. He attacked daily. He simplified a complex issue into a political weapon. And he promised relief."

May 4, 2026 - World

Result in key Indian state is set to have significant implications for the country’s political landscapeNarendra Modi’s party has won a resounding election victory in West Bengal, a state which had been a rare opposition stronghold, expanding his unrivalled consolidation of power across the country.It is the first time that the Indian prime minister’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has won assembly elections in West Bengal, a large and politically significant state in eastern India. Continue reading...

May 4, 2026 - World

Heidi Alexander says part of answer to strait of Hormuz crisis is importing more fuel from US and west AfricaA refinery in Nigeria accused of dismissing workers for joining a union has emerged as key to the UK government’s hopes of saving the summer holiday amid a jet fuel shortage.Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said at the weekend that part of the answer to the strait of Hormuz crisis was to import more fuel from the US and west Africa. Continue reading...

May 4, 2026 - World

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) faced backlash after he used the death of Nicole Brown Simpson to mock Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) over the abrupt shutdown of Spirit Airlines.In a Monday post on X, Lee shared a photo of O.J. Simpson and Brown Simpson, suggesting that Warren killed Spirit Airlines in the same way that many people believe the former football player murdered his wife.Republicans have blamed Warren for the airline's downfall because she blocked a merger with JetBlue."Nailed it," Lee joked."I know as a journalist we don't express opinion. But it is disgusting for a United States Senator to make a joke like this about a colleague," MS Now columnist Eric Michael Garcia wrote. "The thing is, Mike Lee will never answer for this because he refuses to talk to reporters and he knows a joke like this is morally disgusting. He's just completely cooked his brain on internet memes.""Mike Lee stop making jokes involving Republicans murdering women," HuffPost reporter Paul Blumenthal noted. "Are you f—ing kidding me?" longtime media professional Glenn Craven asked of Senate Republicans."@GOP horrible people," Democratic adviser Brian Allman lamented.