Top World News
Macron denies warning Ukraine about potential US betrayal – as it happened
This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereRussia and India will reshape their defence ties to take account of New Delhi’s push for self-reliance, the two countries said in a joint statement after a summit between president Putin and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.“In response to India’s aspirations for self-reliance, the partnership is currently being reoriented toward joint research and development, as well as the production of advanced defence platforms,” the statement said. Continue reading...
Playwright Jeremy O Harris arrested in Japan for alleged drug smuggling
The writer of the Tony award-nominated Slave Play remains in custody after authorities say they found MDMA in his bagAmerican actor and playwright Jeremy O Harris, known for the Tony-nominated Slave Play, was arrested last month at an airport in Japan on suspicion of attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into the country, local authorities said late on Thursday.Harris, 36, was stopped on 16 November at Naha airport on Okinawa island after a customs officer discovered 0.78 grams of crystal containing the synthetic drug MDMA in his tote bag, an Okinawa regional customs spokesperson said. Continue reading...
Putin vows oil shipments to India will be ‘uninterrupted’ in defiance of US
Narendra Modi says energy security is ‘pillar of the India-Russia partnership’ as two leaders meet in DelhiVladimir Putin has told the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, that Russia is ready to continue “uninterrupted” shipments of oil to India, signalling a defiant stance to the US as the two leaders met in Delhi and affirmed that their ties were “resilient to external pressure”.The statement, made on Friday after the annual India-Russia summit, appeared to be directed at western countries – particularly the US – that have attempted to pressure New Delhi into scaling back its ties to Moscow. Continue reading...
Elon Musk's company hit with $139 million fine despite 'garbage' tough talk from JD Vance
Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, has received a $139 million fine by the European Commission. The penalty is the first-ever issued under the content moderation laws and was issued today (December 5) to the social media site, Politico confirmed. Plans to fine X were aired earlier this year, which prompted vice president JD Vance to suggest the EU should not follow through with a "garbage" notion of fining "free speech". The EU Commission confirmed that X was in breach of their transparency obligations, with the fine sent to X because of a "deceptive" change of how blue check verification worked. The European Commission’s Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty Henna Virkkunen said it was not about the highest fines possible, but about making sure appropriate changes were considered and made. Virkkunen said, "We’re not here to impose the highest fines, we’re here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced. If you comply with our rules, you don’t get a fine." They added the fine was "proportionate" to the value of the company, with DSA regulations meaning a maximum fine of 6% of a company's worth can be issued. While the fine may not come as a surprise to X, vice president JD Vance warned the EU Commission that they should not be taking aim at Musk's website, something the tech billionaire made clear he did not appreciate.Vance wrote, "Rumors swirling that the EU commission will fine X hundreds of millions of dollars for not engaging in censorship. The EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage." Musk replied, "Much appreciated."Virkkunen would respond to Vance's comments, saying, "The DSA is having not to do with censorship, this decision is about the transparency of X. On this subject, we have agreed to disagree with the way that some people in the U.S. look at our legislation." "It's not about censorship, and we have repeated several times from this podium, so on this we really agree to disagree on how it is perceived."
US airstrike survivors clung to boat wreckage for an hour before second deadly attack, video shows
Footage seen by US senators shows two unarmed, shirtless men struggling to stay afloat before they were killed, sources sayExperts say Trump’s ‘drug boat’ war is legally shakyTwo men who survived a US airstrike on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean clung to the wreckage for an hour before they were killed in a second attack, according to a video of the episode shown to senators in Washington.The men were shirtless, unarmed and carried no visible radio or other communications equipment. They also appeared to have no idea what had just hit them, or that the US military was weighing whether to finish them off, two sources familiar with the recording told Reuters. Continue reading...
US leader of global neo-Nazi terrorist group signals retribution for arrests
Rinaldo Nazzaro says detention of suspected Base members in Spain justifies ‘resistance … by any means necessary’After Spanish police and Europol’s counter-terrorism section arrested three suspected members of the Base – a globally proscribed neo-Nazi terrorist group – in the eastern province of Castellón, its American leader living in Russia was defiant and signaled further actions.In a text message to the Guardian, Rinaldo Nazzaro called the arrests another “example of political persecution” by world governments that are “further justifying our resistance to its hegemonic rule by any means necessary”. Continue reading...
Dec 5, 2025
Baby fur seal wanders into a bar in New Zealand
A terrifying crisis was manufactured to distract from a massive Trump scandal
Mark Twain allegedly quipped, “God created war so Americans would learn geography.” Whether or not he actually said that, might it not be a good test, that the world’s most mighty military power be prevented from waging war if a majority of Americans failed to find the alleged enemy on a world map?Frivolity aside, this should not need to be said, but the United States has no legal authority to attack Venezuela (nor Iran, Sudan, Somalia, or any other country), nor engage in covert action to overthrow its government. Should the US do so, it will be opposed by everyone south of the Rio Grande, and rightly be seen as a racist resumption of the Monroe Doctrine. Whatever one thinks of the current government, nearly 30 million people live in Venezuela, and they don’t deserve to be demonized or threatened for the policies of their president, as Venezuela poses no threat to the United States.The American people get this. A recent CBS News poll shows widespread public skepticism and disapproval of any US military attack against Venezuela, properly so, with 70 percent opposing the US taking military action.Moreover, the current US military buildup in the Caribbean is an unnecessary and dangerous provocation. US Navy warships and Marine deployments to the region should be reversed to ease tensions. It is very unlikely the US would invade Venezuela with ground forces as even gung ho for blood Secretary of War Pete Hegseth must know a quagmire would ensue, but the Trump administration may see political advantage to have this as a simmering, manufactured “crisis,” to distract from the Epstein files; President Donald Trump’s sagging popularity; and his failed economic, domestic, and foreign policies. And Trump’s declaration closing Venezuelan air space has zero legitimacy, though it did scare many airlines into changing flight routes.An obvious question comes to mind. Is this really about oil, not drugs? Fentanyl is not coming into the US via Venezuela, and the alleged drug ring run by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro does not exist. However, Venezuela does have the world’s largest known oil reserves.I can’t imagine anyone wants a rerun of the Iraq wars. Let’s not test the adage that “history may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme” (which again, Mark Twain may or may not have said). We don’t want to have to dust off our “No War for Oil!” protest signs. And there is also already a metastasizing problem with violent competition for rare earth minerals in Venezuela.The brouhaha about the second attack on the alleged “drug boat” on Sept. 2 (and no evidence has been presented that it was a “drug boat” and even if it was, there was no legal authority to attack it, once or twice) possibly being a war crime misses the point, though Hegseth should be held to account; all the attacks on the alleged “drug boats” are illegal, and unauthorized by Congress.Speaking of which, Congress needs to not only investigate these shady “drug boat” attacks, but assert its constitutional authority by passing a War Powers Resolution to stop the out-of-control Trump administration from further attacks or escalation. The US Senate failed to pass such a measure last month, 51-49, with all Democrats voting in favor and all but two Republicans voting against upholding the Constitution, but “the world’s greatest deliberative body” should try again. Perhaps Republicans can read the polls better now.Also, US economic sanctions are hurting the people and economy of Venezuela, and should be at least reconsidered, if not scrapped altogether. Unfortunately, some self-appointed foreign policy experts think sanctions are a humane alternative to war, and better than “doing nothing.” The reality is broad economic sanctions hurt ordinary people the most, and are an immoral and ineffective way to try to get hungry people to overthrow their government, regardless of its domestic popularity or lack thereof.Lastly, while I never bought this, wasn’t Trump supposed to be about “America First” and avoiding foreign wars? His voters thought so. Trump is about to risk American lives, when nobody voted to have their sons and daughters fight a war with Venezuela, or any other country. Congress needs to listen to the wisdom of the American people and shut this ill-conceived threat to Venezuela and its neighbors down now.Kevin Martin is the president of Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund, with over 40 years experience as a peace and justice organizer. He is helping coordinate the Cease-Fire Now Grassroots Advocacy Network.
Strike survivors deserved death for 'trying to flip their boat back over': GOP senator
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) insisted that two survivors of the strike on a small alleged drug boat deserved to die because they were trying to "flip" the vessel back over after it was hit.Following a briefing from Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley on Thursday, Cotton defended the Pentagon's decision to continue firing on the boat after the first strike."The second strike and the third and the fourth strike on September 2nd were entirely lawful and needful, and they were exactly what we would expect our military commanders to do," the senator insisted. "What exactly did you see in terms of the video of the second strike?" one reporter asked. "Were there survivors?""I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs, bound for the United States, back over, so they could stay in the fight," Cotton replied. "And potentially, given all the contacts we heard, of other narco-terrorist boats in the area coming to their aid to recover their cargo and recover those narco-terrorists, and just like you would blow up a boat, off of the Somali coast or the Yemeni coast and you'd come back and strike it again if it still had terrorists and it still had explosives or missiles."The boat, however, did not have explosives or missiles and was too small to pose a threat to the U.S. mainland from that distance, many experts have said. "I didn't see anything disturbing about it," Cotton told the reporters. "And we're going to continue to strike these boats until cartels learn their lesson that their drugs are no longer coming to America.""But Congressman Himes said that according to what he saw in that video, the two people who survived trying to get back on the boat, there was no way they could have conducted further operations or anything like that?" a reporter pressed. "He may be okay with drug boats running to America," Cotton snapped. "I just disagree with that.""If you think these strikes are justified and righteous, as I do, and I want them to continue, then of course the second strike, when you have two survivors, who are trying to flip their boat back over and continue on their mission, remain in the battle," he added.
Putin and Modi to meet amid politically treacherous times for Russia and India
Delhi visit gives Russian leader a chance to reduce Moscow’s isolation but both countries need each other to negotiate Trump’s US and a powerful ChinaWhen Vladimir Putin last set foot in India almost exactly four years ago, the world order looked materially different. At that visit – lasting just five hours due to the Covid pandemic – Putin and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, discussed economic and military cooperation and reaffirmed their special relationship.Three months later, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine would turn him into a global pariah, isolating the Kremlin from the world and restricting Putin’s international travel. Continue reading...
'Real jeopardy': Dem vets in Congress slam Trump and Hegseth for endangering U.S. troops
WASHINGTON — Democratic veterans on Capitol Hill say there’s a dangerous throughline to Pete Hegseth’s dueling scandals, over the use of an unsecured messaging app and boat bombings in the Caribbean and Pacific: The Pentagon chief is endangering US troops.A new report from the Pentagon inspector general finds Hegseth — a former Army officer who was a Fox News weekend host before he entered government — put troops in danger this spring when he shared Yemen war plans on the commercial messaging app Signal."He shared information he shouldn't have in a way that he shouldn't have, and the consequences are that our military could be compromised and the safety of our men and women in uniform could be compromised,” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) told Raw Story. “That's what we know.”“Is that the kind of person that we want to be the Secretary of Defense?" Houlahan — an Air Force veteran and member of both the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees — said. "No one should be using Signal in that way. Nobody should be communicating that information at all. It's just not nobody, it's the Secretary of Defense."Details from the inspector general report on Hegseth’s use of commercial messaging app Signal — including how the then national security adviser, Mike Waltz, came to add Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat ahead of strikes in Yemen — are damning to many in Congress.But that issue pales in comparison to allegations Hegseth signed off on unlawful military strikes in the Caribbean. To veterans in Congress, it’s unconscionable that Secretary of Defense Hegseth and President Donald Trump, the commander-in-chief, are seemingly letting their underlings take the blame for the military strikes. “It is incredibly offensive. And it sends a message to the troops that this President, this SecDef, is willing to throw you under the bus,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) — an Army veteran who lost her legs in Iraq — told Raw Story. “One of the first things you learn as an Army officer, which, you know, [Hegseth] supposedly was, is that you can always delegate authority, but you never delegate responsibility. The responsibility rests with him.”Hegseth doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo. ‘No leader worth their salt’On Monday, the Defense Secretary took to social media to seemingly shift the blame.“Lets make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100 percent support,” Hegseth wrote on X. “I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on this September 2 mission and all others since.”That was the mission when, the Washington Post first reported, an order was given to carry out a second strike on a boat in the Caribbean, the first having left survivors clinging to wreckage. The Post said Hegseth ordered the second strike, which most analysts say would constitute a war crime. He denies it. To Duckworth and many other veterans on Capitol Hill, Hegseth passing the buck is scandalous. “I've always known that he's not qualified for the job,” Duckworth said. “I worry about the service members being put into jeopardy by this, right? We’re violating international laws of armed conflict, we are putting service members in legal jeopardy.“My focus right now is what are we doing to our service members? We're putting them in real jeopardy, both legally and also personally. I mean, you know, if we're going to do this in international waters, what's to keep some other country from saying, ‘Hey, we're going to do this to the US’?”Other senior members of the Armed Services Committees agreed. "No leader worth their salt pushes responsibility off on a subordinate,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told Raw Story. “And if Hegseth gave a ‘kill everybody’ order — and we have to determine whether, in fact, that's true — that's a clear violation of law, whether or not he gave it before the second strike. A kill everybody order just in and of itself is a violation of the laws of war.”Kaine says Hegseth has a bad habit of passing the buck. "The opening salvo of ‘It's all a lie’ and ‘It's journalists who are spinning a fake narrative’ to now, ‘Well, yeah, it's true but you know, it was Adm. Bradley's call, not mine’ — I mean, you know, no,” Kaine said. ‘Legal risk’Kaine and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) are renewing their calls for Congress to pass an AUMF — or Authorization for Use of Military Force — before the Pentagon carries out more air strikes off the coast of Venezuela. "We're seeing realized a lot of the fears members had that this unauthorized campaign would result in blowback to the country, to our troops," Schiff told Raw Story. "One of the concerns I've had all along has been that we risk putting service members in physical danger, but we also risk putting them at legal risk and that's exactly what's happened."Hegseth’s Democratic critics say it's the same with “Signalgate.” "Secretary Hegseth has been a liability to the administration from the moment he was confirmed,” Houlahan of Pennsylvania said. “At what point does the President recognize that and ask for his resignation?"
Revealed: Myanmar junta ‘crony’ given key role behind Fifa peace prize
Inaugural prize expected to be handed to Donald Trump but ‘process’ for choosing future winners to be proposed by controversial tycoon’s committeeIt was the timing that set off the first alarm bells. With Donald Trump brooding over missing out on the Nobel peace prize, and shortly before Gianni Infantino, the president of world football’s governing body, Fifa, was due to meet the US president in Miami, an announcement was made.In a press release and a post on his personal Instagram account last month, Infantino said Fifa would launch its very own peace prize, to be awarded each year to “individuals who help unite people in peace through unwavering commitment and special actions”. Continue reading...
China's Xi and France's Macron pledge cooperation on global crises and trade
China and France have pledged deeper cooperation to address global issues like the war in Ukraine and trade
