Top World News
Keir Starmer defends trip to South Africa for G20 summit as budget looms
PM says he aims to secure investment to help deal with cost of living and shore up support for UkraineKeir Starmer has defended his decision to travel to South Africa for the G20 summit days before the budget and despite the planned absence of Donald Trump.The prime minister will arrive in South Africa on Friday morning for two days of summit discussions and bilateral talks on topics including sustainability and economic growth. Continue reading...
'International incident': 'Terrifying standoff' as US troops mistakenly invade Mexico
American troops "pulled up on a Mexican beach" and created a "terrifying standoff," according to a new report.According to at least one news report, "American troops pulled up on a Mexican beach in a dramatic escalation of tensions after Donald Trump threatened to bomb the country.""US 'contractors' arrived by boat on Monday at Playa Bagdad, driving signs into the sand near where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico," the Thursday report states. "Alarmed witnesses quickly alerted officials and heavily armed Mexican security personnel rushed to the scene on trucks mounted with machine guns in a terrifying standoff."The report continues:"The Pentagon, in a deeply embarrassing statement, admitted that its troops were mistaken when they landed on the beach. The Mexican personnel watched as the Americans drove six signs into the ground, which said: 'Warning: restricted area.' Written in English and Spanish, they claimed that the beach was the property of the US Department of Defense and had been declared restricted by 'the commander.' They also said unauthorized access or photography was not allowed in that area and that 'if you are found here, you may be detained and searched.' Mexico's foreign affairs ministry said its navy removed the signs from the sand, which it believed were on Mexican territory."Ex-prosecutor Ron Filipkowski chimed in on social media on Thursday:"Apparently dips--- Hegseth’s 'lethal warfighters' landed inside the Mexican border by mistake and created an international incident."Read more here.Apparently dipshit Hegseth’s “lethal warfighters” landed inside the Mexican border by mistake and created an international incident. pic.twitter.com/iaXFCEorZc— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) November 20, 2025
US in talks to attend G20 summit after initial boycott, South Africa says
Cyril Ramaphosa says US has had ‘change of mind’ but does not confirm Trump’s attendance in JohannesburgThe US has changed its mind about attending the G20 summit in Johannesburg, South Africa’s president has said, without confirming whether Donald Trump, who had said the US would boycott the event, now wanted to come.Trump has claimed that South Africa racially discriminates against the minority white Afrikaner community, which led the country during the apartheid regime that ended in 1994. Continue reading...
Biafran separatist leader sentenced to life on terrorism charges by Nigerian court
Judge says Nnamdi Kanu used his Indigenous People of Biafra group to incite attacks on security officials and civiliansThe Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu has been sentenced to life in prison on terrorism-related charges by a court in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.Judge James Omotosho said prosecutors had shown that Kanu, who also holds British citizenship, had used his Indigenous People of Biafra group (Ipob) to incite attacks on security officials and civilians in south-east Nigeria and during anti-police protests in Lagos. Continue reading...
Israeli airstrikes kill 33 people in Gaza in escalation of post-ceasefire attacks
Medical officials say 17 people killed in Khan Younis area and 16 in strikes on Gaza CityIsraeli attacks in Gaza have killed 33 people and injured many more, according to medical officials, in one of the most serious escalations of violence since the US-backed ceasefire came into effect last month.Officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis said they received the bodies of 17 people, including five women and five children, after four Israeli airstrikes targeted tents sheltering displaced people. In Gaza City, medical officials said two airstrikes killed 16 people, including seven children and three women. Continue reading...
‘We can no longer predict the seasons’: why Indonesia’s coal mindset has to change
It’s a climate-vulnerable nation, while also being the world’s sixth-largest greenhouse-gas emitter. Global investment in climate action is vital Continue reading...
'Whistling by the graveyard': Republican strategist warns GOP face huge midterms challenge
The GOP could face a difficult midterm period, according to a Republican strategist who says some will be "whistling by the graveyard".Victory is not guaranteed for the Republican candidates in next year's voting, an anonymous strategist claimed, suggesting that Donald Trump would be crucial to the GOP's campaign efforts. Speaking to Politico, the unnamed analyst said there will be trouble for some GOP members in inspiring voters to turn up in the 2026 elections, even if their support for Trump is unwavering. They said, "Any Republican not preparing for a turnout challenge in 2026 is whistling by the graveyard. If Trump is on the ballot, Republican turnout is strong. And if he’s not, it craters. It collapses. There’s an entire group of people who are Trump voters, but Trump alone. There seems to be no way to get them to the ballot."It is believed the president will be more involved in the midterms than first expected. Trump's top political director, James Blair, confirmed the president would have a hands-on approach to next year's voting. Blair also backed the GOP to perform fairly well, so long as it can fix an "overcomeable problem". He said, "With a lot of campaigning next year, with a lot of resources in the right districts for the right candidates. The president will campaign a lot to get people out." Blair added that "candidates still have to connect with these voters, too," and cannot just ride on the president's name alone. Some believe the president's influence is still strong in those deciding votes. Tom Eddy, the Republican chair in Erie County, Pennsylvania, is the "ace in the hole". Headway in the midterms was attempted earlier this week by the GOP, but Judge Jeffrey V. Brown of the District Court for the Southern District of Texas prevented Republican-drawn maps for the midterms. Judge Brown ruled that the Republican maps drawn by the Texas state legislature were illegal and prohibited them from being used in the next election. The ruling prevents Republicans from eliminating five Democratic-held seats. Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer for Slate, described Brown's 160-page decision as an "extraordinary rebuke" in a new analysis of the case."Remarkably, Brown found that it was Trump’s own Department of Justice that had injected race into the plot as part of its 'hamfisted' effort to cook up a pretext for new maps," Stern wrote. "And he laid out a gobsmacking amount of smoking-gun evidence that all points in the direction of unlawful racism."
Trump defends Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi killing, threatens ABC News in White House meeting – as it happened
This live blog is now closed.Trump shrugs off Khashoggi murder during Saudi prince’s White House visitA reminder that Donald Trump’s family has a strong personal interest in Saudi Arabia. In September, London real estate developer Dar Global announced that it plans to launch Trump Plaza in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.It’s Dar Global’s second collaboration with the Trump Organization, the collection of companies controlled by the US president’s children, in the kingdom. Last year, the two companies announced the launch of Trump Tower Jeddah. Continue reading...
This White House disgrace makes no effort to conceal Trump's sheer contempt
Donald Trump will debase the White House today like never before.Far worse than bulldozing its East Wing, Trump will use the People’s House as the grotesque backdrop for reducing to rubble any pretense of American moral leadership in the world. He will prostrate himself — and our nation — at the feet of one of its most malign actors.All for the money.The killer’s name is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. The world came to know him as MBS when he first gained widespread notoriety for ordering the brutal murder in 2018 of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen and legal permanent resident in the U.S.Little more than seven years after Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul — his dismembered body never to be found — MBS will be fêted today at the White House. Trump will be there to greet him as a dignitary — ready with smiles, handshakes, photo ops, and promises of billions in deals (presumably not limited to his family in this case).Trump has spent seven years evading the truth, but the intelligence record is unambiguous. On Oct. 2, 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his marriage. He never walked out. Turkish authorities and U.S. intelligence confirmed the gruesome details: he was bound, injected with a fatal sedative, then dismembered, his body chemically dissolved. This was not some “rogue operation.” The CIA examined audio recordings from inside the consulate, intercepted calls, and text messages. MBS sent at least 11 texts to his top adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, who oversaw the 15-man hit squad sent to Istanbul. A member of the hit team called a senior aide to MBS from inside the consulate immediately after the murder to report the job was done.The CIA’s assessment wasn’t vague. Officials called it “blindingly obvious” that MBS gave the order. A killing this organized, this brazen, couldn’t have happened without his approval.And what did Trump do with this intelligence? He didn’t just ignore it — he rejected it outright. He issued a disgraceful, exclamation-point-laden statement dismissing his own CIA’s findings, claiming they only had “feelings” with “no smoking gun” — a deliberate, contemptible lie designed to protect a killer.Trump framed his surrender as “America First” by prioritizing arms sales and oil over the murder of a journalist who lived here. In a moment that never truly engendered the scorn it deserved, he wondered aloud whether people really wanted him to give up “hundreds of thousands of jobs.”That’s what it always comes down to: Money. Arms. Oil. Trump declared that abandoning Saudi Arabia would be a “terrible mistake,” ensuring “we’re with Saudi Arabia and staying with Saudi Arabia” — to hell with justice, truth, and American values.The rest of the world hasn’t forgotten. When the Biden administration released the declassified intelligence report in 2021, it confirmed what everyone already knew: MBS viewed Khashoggi as a threat and supported using violent means to silence him.MBS hasn’t changed. Saudi Arabia is executing prisoners at a record rate and maintaining an unprecedented human rights crackdown. Dozens of activists and writers languish in Saudi prisons for speaking freely.This is not just a crackdown on adults. Human rights groups have documented that Saudi authorities are reneging on their promise to halt the death penalty for juveniles, executing individuals for crimes allegedly committed when they were children, in addition to the hundreds executed for non-lethal, drug-related offenses.But today, Trump rolls out the red carpet — literally. There will be a South Lawn arrival ceremony, an Oval Office meeting, a Cabinet Room signing ceremony, and an East Room dinner hosted by Melania Trump. They’ll sign deals on AI, defense, and semiconductors potentially worth $142 billion. There will be smiling photo ops and glowing praise.What there won’t be is accountability. What there won’t be is justice for Jamal Khashoggi. What there won’t be is any acknowledgment that the man being honored in the White House ordered a journalist lured to his death and dismembered with a bone saw.Seven years later, Trump is doubling down on that betrayal. It would be interesting to see if any of Khashoggi’s erstwhile colleagues in the press dare mention his name today.It appears that the media has moved on. Congress has moved on. But Jamal Khashoggi is still dead, his body never found and his murderer is being celebrated as an honored guest.For Donald Trump, everything has a price.And as long as he’s our president, so does America’s soul.Ray Hartmann writes on Substack at Ray Hartmann's Soapbox
Bhutan PM on leading the first carbon-negative nation: ‘The wellbeing of our people is at the centre of our agenda’
Exclusive: Tshering Tobgay says his country is doing ‘a lot more than our fair share’ on climate and west must cut emissions ‘for the happiness of your people’The wealthy western countries most responsible for the climate crisis would improve the health and happiness of their citizens by prioritising environmental conservation and sustainable economic growth, according to the prime minister of Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative nation.Bhutan, a Buddhist democratic monarchy and biodiversity hotspot situated high in the eastern Himalayas, is among the world’s most ambitious climate leaders thanks to its people’s connection with nature and a strong political focus on improving gross national happiness rather than just GDP, Tshering Tobgay told the Guardian. Continue reading...
'Sickens me!' MAGA hosts lose it on pope after perceived 'woke' snub of Mel Gibson
Hosts of the pro-MAGA Real America's Voice network accused Pope Leo XIV of a "woke turn" after a meeting with Hollywood stars did not include conservatives like Mel Gibson."It's time to stay awake, not woke," host Terrence Bates noted on Monday. "That is where Pope Leo the 14th just hosted a private meeting with Hollywood A-listers, Spike Lee, Kate Blanchett, Judd Apatow, all there. But noticeably not there: Conservatives like Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Jon Voight, and James Woods.""I grew up in Catholic churches," co-host Gina Loudon explained. "My heart just breaks for the good people I know who are Catholics who have had to endure now two popes in a row, I've lost count, is it three popes in a row? All the popes since Pope John Paul essentially have been just— not what the average Catholic that I know believes, right?""What in the heck is this guy doing?" she asked. "What a mockery of God's faithful in the Catholic Church to be worried about getting to rub elbows with Hollywood elite? It sickens me, to be honest.""A hundred percent, I agree with everything you said," co-host David Brody agreed. "Why, just because he's the pope, I mean, all of a sudden there has to be this reverence because he's the pope?"According to Brody, the pope was "doing stuff that's just not biblical in many ways.""We can go down the list if you want to talk about the LGBT aspect of it, or how about blessing a block of ice?" he continued. "I feel bad for the Catholics that are just like, you know, would like to see a pope actually speak out on the traditional biblical values that are not only time-honored and cherished but are actually factual and accurate and biblical.""Don't put him on a pedestal," Bates added.
Ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina sentenced to death for crimes against humanity
Hasina sentenced in absentia by court in Dhaka over deadly crackdown on student-led uprising last yearBangladesh’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death in absentia by a court in Dhaka for crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.A three-judge bench of the country’s international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including incitement, orders to kill and inaction to prevent atrocities as she oversaw a crackdown on anti-government protesters last year. Continue reading...
