Top World News

Oct 18, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump formally endorsed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reelection on Sunday. The move angered critics on the left and some of Trump’s own “America First” supporters.Trump posted the endorsement on Truth Social as a letter “To the Great People of Israel.” He called Netanyahu “a great warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater partner for peace in the fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”“If Israel has the wrong leader, meaning anyone other than Bibi, America will have to do the job itself, and I have no inclination to do so,” Trump wrote. “Please consider this letter my full and complete endorsement of Benjamin Netanyahu in his next race for reelection as Prime Minister of Israel. Bibi Netanyahu will never let you down!”Axios reporter Barak Ravid was among the first to flag the post. Netanyahu answered with a video saying that only he and Trump would destroy Iran’s nuclear program.Danny Citrinowicz, a senior fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the wording worried him.“I may be reading too much into this statement, and I certainly hope I am wrong,” he wrote. “But it is hard not to interpret it as suggesting that Netanyahu promised Trump another joint military operation against Iran in exchange for his political support.”“Israel cannot afford another war with Iran driven by political calculations rather than a genuine national security necessity,” he added.Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, pointed to the International Criminal Court arrest warrant issued for Netanyahu in 2024 over the war in Gaza.“Netanyahu has committed genocide, yet Trump endorses him,” Roth wrote. “I suppose that’s not worse than aiding and abetting the genocide, which Trump also did.”Some of the sharpest criticism came from the right. Conservative commentator Breck Worsham, who posts as ThePatrioticBlonde, called the endorsement a “slobber filled love letter of idolatry.”“Trump just once again endorsed Netanyahu, KNOWING how much the American people hate him, KNOWING how much the American people detest Israel,” she wrote. “He just continues to give the middle finger to the country he was elected to represent.”Rich Baris, director of the right-leaning Big Data Poll, noted that the endorsement came hours after a report said Trump wouldn’t weigh in on Israel’s election.“Welp, that was wrong. He did,” Baris wrote.The endorsement comes more than six months into Trump’s war with Iran, which polls show is deeply unpopular with American voters.

Oct 18, 2026 - World

Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to clear up why Ukraine’s satellite internet has been slowing down. Critics say he made things murkier, and one prominent conservative predicted Congress would be asking about it.Rubio talked to reporters Saturday at Joint Base Andrews before leaving for Central Asia. One asked about Starshield, the military version of SpaceX’s Starlink. Elon Musk had said this week that limits on the system are up to the president.“Starshield is a defense product, a military product,” Rubio said. “It’s not at this moment available to Ukraine, and that’s under conversation.”Asked about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s claim that the slowdown was deliberate, Rubio waved it off.“I’m not sure Zelenskyy knows what he’s talking about, but it wasn’t deliberate,” he said. “We have nothing to do with that. I don’t – the United States, nobody ordered that Starlink speed to be slowed down. It sort of happened, but my understanding is it’s been restored.”He added that Ukraine wants Starshield “in order to conduct deep strikes inside of Russia” but doesn’t have access to it.Christopher Miller, chief Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times, said that’s wrong.“In fact, Ukraine has had access to and contracts for Starshield since 2024,” Miller wrote. “So it seems the Ukrainian president is not the one who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”Miller noted that a week after the slowdown, Ukraine still has no explanation of who ordered the speed limits.“The White House and SpaceX each claim it’s the other who’s responsible,” he wrote. “Rubio says nobody in the US is responsible.”Barak Ravid, a politics and foreign policy reporter for Axios, pointed out that Rubio’s account doesn’t match what Kyiv has said.“This is very strange. Ukrainian officials claim they had access to starshield through the Pentagon until a few days ago when it was restricted,” Ravid wrote. “Maybe there is some misunderstanding.”Even some critics on the right questioned Rubio’s version. David Pyne, a conservative national security commentator who posts as “America First Con,” wrote: “Rubio is lying. Biden gave Ukraine access to Starshield years ago when he authorized deep strikes into Russia. Trump has only disabled it intermittently since October 14th.”Jonah Goldberg, the conservative editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, said the moment won’t go away.“This interview is weird,” Goldberg wrote. “What he says here will be revisited by journalists, historians, and Congressional committees.”Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) went after Rubio’s tone.“Innocent civilians are dying in Ukraine because of Trump/Musk and Rubio treats it like it’s a special at Applebee’s that has run out,” he wrote.Terry Moran, an independent journalist and former ABC News correspondent, said Rubio has given up the hawkish views he once held.“Marco Rubio was once a serious man,” Moran wrote. “Now he cannot even whisper a syllable of the principles he once proudly and effectively proclaimed. It profits a man nothing to sell his soul for the whole world. But for Donald Trump?”German military analyst Julian Röpcke, a former journalist for the tabloid Bild, wrote in German that “the former Russia critic Rubio” had shown how Trump’s “authoritarian aura turns formerly principled politicians into spineless Putin supporters.”An American YouTuber based in Ukraine who posts as Jay in Kyiv put it more bluntly: “Rubio tells a series of complete lies.”The remarks come shortly after President Donald Trump put on hold the sweeping Russia sanctions law named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, and a week after he struck a deal to import Russian diesel.

Nov 21, 2025 - World

The Queen's coffin will lie in state at Westminster Hall until her funeral on Monday.View Entire Post ›

Sep 20, 2024 - World

The Brazilian “King of Football” had been treated for colon cancer since 2021.View Entire Post ›

Sep 18, 2023 - World

Having lived in Beijing for almost 12 years, I've had plenty of time to travel widely in China.