Top World News
Indonesia wildfires threaten orangutans rescued from animal traffickers
Blaze fuelled by hot, dry and windy conditions comes within metres of West Kalimantan rehabilitation centreOrangutans rescued from wildlife traffickers face a new threat from the record number of fires that have broken out in Indonesia in recent weeks.Flames have come within metres of an animal rehabilitation centre in West Kalimantan as hot, dry and windy conditions have been amplified by a powerful El Niño and the human-driven climate crisis. Continue reading...
Trump Freedom Fuel's 'unprecedented' deal alarms ex-State official: 'They want to hide'
President Donald Trump's touted Freedom Fuel gas-station network faces fresh scrutiny after a former State Department official questioned possible links to Venezuela.During an episode of Court of History, former State Department expert on international crime Jonathan Winer suggested Freedom Fuel may be tied to Venezuela's opaque oil revenue and selling cheaper gas through an arrangement that's "literally unprecedented in American history."Freedom Fuel appeared around Philadelphia in late June with regular gas priced at $3.47 a gallon, which was roughly 50 cents under local prices and below estimated wholesale costs. The White House has promoted the chain as proof that Trump's energy agenda is working without explaining how the stations undercut every competitor."People can't mysteriously get fuel at a lower price and continue to offer that," Winer said. "You could, of course, do a very short promotion, but you basically can't do it."Since January, the administration has controlled Venezuelan oil revenue under what it called a custodianship and with almost no public accounting, Winer noted."It's all remarkably opaque," he said. "You would think we would know, but we don't."The Trump administration led an operation to remove former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro from power and detain him for drug trafficking charges. Winer noted that Trump boasted shortly after, "To the victor go the spoils, and these are the spoils," referring to Venezuelan oil. According to Winer, Trump even added, "We're getting billions."According to Winer, "Freedom Fuel is maintaining as much opacity as it can. It's not explaining anything." At the same time, "The White House is maintaining as much opacity as it can," except to say that Trump, his family, and their businesses have no financial stake in Freedom Fuel.However, Winer suggested that Freedom Fuel is "a patronage network which the United States is sponsoring." He called on Congress to subpoena records from the Treasury, State, and Energy departments."When you have governments that are being opaque rather than transparent, it's usually because there's something they want to hide," he warned.
North Korea slams US-South Korea military drills and threatens strong response
North Korea has threatened unspecified stern steps against the United States and South Korea, slamming their upcoming military drills as a war rehearsal that it claimed would be more provocative than last year
Heavy rain causes flooding near Tokyo that kills 4 and strands travelers
Record-breaking rainfall that pounded cities east of Tokyo overnight has flooded roads and dozens of homes, stranded thousands of people, caused power outages and left at least four people dead and one missing
Tunnel collapses at an Indian hydropower project, killing at least 7
Officials say an under-construction tunnel has collapsed at a hydropower project in India’s northern hill state of Uttarakhand, leaving at least seven workers dead
Nigel Farage beats Count Binface in widely mocked election
Nigel Farage beat trash-can wearing comic candidate Count Binface on Friday, regaining a seat in Parliament he quit a month ago to trigger the widely mocked special election
Trump's 'exploded' crack problem sends a global crisis spiraling out of control: Krugman
President Donald Trump has a crack problem — and America is paying the cost of it, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.Krugman argued on Substack Thursday that Americans are unlikely to see gas prices drop because, as he put it, "Donald Trump is not a well man. He is, unfortunately, also President, which means that we all pay a price for his inability to accept reality."That "reality," according to Krugman, is that Iran has outmaneuvered him and the war is lost.The former New York Times economist argued oil prices are higher than is generally understood because of the difference between the cost of a barrel of crude and that of the products refined from that barrel — or "crack spread." Since the beginning of the war, that crack spread has "exploded," rising by roughly $35 per barrel, Krugman wrote. Refining capacity worldwide has been significantly constrained because much of the world's refining capacity is either trapped inside the Strait or offline as a result of Ukraine's drone campaign against Vladimir Putin, according to Krugman's analysis.Therefore, the shortage of refining capacity has held crude prices down, as buyers are not willing to pay extremely high prices for crude oil they cannot refine, explained the economist.The cutoff of oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz has required a large rise in global oil prices to ration demand, but much of that rationing has taken place through a rise in "the crack spread" rather than a rise in crude oil prices.For the United States, the implications are immediate, the economist warned. Inflation, which was held down in recent months by falling fuel prices, is set to rise again in upcoming economic data. Gasoline prices have risen back above $4 per gallon, while diesel prices have returned above $5 per gallon.
DRC’s fast-growing Ebola outbreak spreads to sixth province
Man dies in Bas-Uele after travelling from Haut-Uele, as head of WHO says outbreak on track to be deadliest everThe Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread to a sixth province, officials have said, a day after the head of the World Health Organization said the outbreak was on track to surpass the deadliest in history, which killed at least 11,000 people more than a decade ago.The current outbreak has killed more than 2,100 people out of more than 4,500 cases, according to the latest government figures released on Tuesday. At the same point in the 2014-16 outbreak in west Africa, the previous most deadly outbreak, 755 cases had been recorded, according to WHO data. Continue reading...
CNN reports USS Lincoln sailor went overboard even as Navy denies mental health crisis
A sailor serving on the USS Abraham Lincoln was rescued last month after going overboard into the water, according to a U.S. official.The official confirmed to CNN the sailor was quickly pulled from the water and medically evaluated, although it's not clear whether that service member returned to duty or evacuated from the aircraft carrier.The U.S. Navy ship is currently on the longest aircraft carrier deployment on record, marked by an unusual lack of normal port visits, and service members on board have reported deteriorating living conditions and attempts by despairing sailors to throw themselves overboard. However, the official said the Navy has "not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship," telling CNN "we take every service member's well-being seriously and have religious, medical and mental health professionals available to assess and address concerns as they arise."Sailors typically go through difficult adjustments over a deployment, the official said, and the ship is "not experiencing an uptick in mental health issues."The official noted that resources available to the crew include five chaplains, a psychologist, a clinical social worker, behavioral health technicians, a prevention counselor, and a therapy dog named Captain Fathom.The Navy's account contrasts with new reporting from Military Times, which has documented multiple instances of Abraham Lincoln sailors attempting to go overboard, raising questions about the psychological toll of extended time at sea.If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 for support and assistance from a trained counselor. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, call 911.
French ambassador to CAR investigated over claims he hosted dozens of women
Disciplinary proceedings under way after security concerns raised over reported visits to official residenceFrance has opened disciplinary proceedings against its ambassador to Central African Republic over allegations of misconduct, after claims he brought dozens of women into his official residence, raising potential security concerns.The investigation comes as Paris seeks to rebuild relations with CAR after their sharp deterioration in recent years amid Russia’s expanding influence in the former French colony. Continue reading...
‘Absolutely unacceptable’: Japan condemns visit by Vladimir Putin to disputed Kuril Islands
Japanese PM says islands seized by Soviets late in second world war are part of her country under international lawThe Japanese government has reacted angrily to Vladimir Putin’s first visit to the disputed Kuril Islands, which are claimed by both Tokyo and Moscow.Japan’s foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, summoned the Russian ambassador Nikolay Nozdrev, while the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, called Putin’s actions “absolutely unacceptable”. Continue reading...
'This is insane!' MS NOW host flips out over Pete Hegseth's latest blunder
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was raked over the coals on Thursday morning amid reports of horrific conditions that his US military forces face. On MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Joe Scarborough reacted to reports that the USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed from San Diego for an extraordinary 200-plus days without a port call.With Democrats calling for an investigation after family members of those deployed revealed things have become so bad that some sailors have had to be stopped from leaping off the ship, Scarborough launched into a withering tirade.“This is the longest deployment on a ship like that ever,” co-host Willie Geist explained. "The Secretary of Defense seemed very interested and obsessed with their testosterone levels, but not whether or not they're getting real food aboard the ship as this war drags on.”Scarborough erupted. “This is insane by any measure at all,” Scarborough exclaimed. “And so think about it: we have this happening on the USS Lincoln. We have our sailors being treated like third-class citizens, treated like trash, actually.”“So we're not taking care of job one, which is, again, military readiness,” he continued. “And secondly, we're not even able to keep count of the munitions that we have; Pete Hegseth, the DoD has run out of munitions to fight a hot war with Iran that Pete Hegseth told the president we should start.”Scarborough continued to insult Hegseth's priorities, snapping, "He's sitting around talking about testosterone levels and doing all these stupid promo videos that are supposed to make him look tough." - YouTube youtu.be
