Top World News
Pentagon increasing hostile fire, imminent danger pay for military personnel
The Pentagon is increasing pay for military personnel actively fighting enemy forces or serving in dangerous locations for the first time in more than two decades.
British Sikh activist released from Delhi jail after nine-year detention
Indian government issued with warning it would be in contempt of court if it failed to release Jagtar Singh JohalThe British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal has been released from a Delhi prison after the Indian high court warned the government it would be found in contempt of court if it continued to attempt to keep him in jail despite an 18 September court order releasing him on bail. Johal has been incarcerated for nine years without any full trial.The court order was issued after Johal’s lawyers issued a writ of habeas corpus alleging he was being detained against the express direction of the court. Continue reading...
US ally shoots down Trump's $50 billion investment boast: 'Far beyond what was agreed'
A $50 billion investment deal touted by President Donald Trump during a Wednesday Oval Office event is running into pushback from the ally he says agreed to it.Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters South Korea would invest more than $50 billion in the long-stalled Alaska LNG pipeline project, plus another $120 billion in U.S. nuclear power plants, as part of a "broader trade package." That earned applause in the Oval Office on Wednesday.Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican who has pushed the pipeline for years, celebrated on X: "Alaska LNG is happening thanks to a $50 billion+ investment from South Korea that we announced today at the White House. This project will deliver low-cost energy for Alaskans for generations and create 10,000+ good-paying jobs. A historic day for our state!"But South Korea's government says the celebration is premature, the Wall Street Journal reported early Thursday morning.Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan pushed back on the U.S. framing, saying "the announcement went far beyond what was agreed, as the countries agreed to proceed with the Alaska project only on the premise that commercial reasonableness is guaranteed," according to the Korea Times.South Korean President Lee Jae Myung echoed the objection, insisting no blank check had been written. "We agreed to begin working on the Alaska LNG project on the conditions that, first, its commercial viability is confirmed and, second, it complies with Korea's legal procedures," Lee said.According to the Journal, Seoul has reportedly secured "a $20 billion annual investment ceiling and a $200 billion overall cap" as part of the broader trade framework, guardrails that leave the specific Alaska pipeline commitment far from finalized despite Wednesday's applause line. "The clashing versions add another twist to protracted, and often contentious, talks between Washington and Seoul over last year’s trade pact. South Korea has pledged $350 billion in U.S. investments, plus an additional $100 billion for American energy purchases, in exchange for dropping tariffs on most goods from 25% to 15%," the Journal reported.
Trump's biggest 'cheerleader' raging over broken promise — and set to strike him down: Religion expert
Evangelical voters who once worshiped President Donald Trump are quietly abandoning the conservative party, a religious expert with close ties to the White House told Raw Story.Professor J. Derrick Lemons — author of the upcoming book “Trump and the Politics of Prayer: Inside the Spiritual World of His Faith Advisory Team” — told Raw Story that the religious community cannot forgive their president. “It's not like the cheerleader years of yesteryear,” said the University of Georgia’s Religion department head. “The midterms are not looking good.”Lemons has devoted his career to studying the influence of Christian pastors on American society, focusing in recent years on their complex and sometimes duplicitous relationship with Trump. In his 2022 article “The Room Where It Happened: How Evangelical Leaders Used a Closed-Door Meeting to Change Sentiment for Donald J. Trump,” Lemons spoke with Trump's evangelical advisor Reverend Johnnie Moore about a 2016 meeting orchestrated to draw voters to Trump’s side. "Organizers knew the questions that needed to be asked, and these questions were vetted with candidate Trump in advance,” Lemons wrote. "These staged questions allowed candidate Trump to provide correct answers to the key issues evangelicals cared about...The result is that millions of evangelicals who were on the fence about candidate Trump voted for him.”And they voted in droves.Evangelicals comprised a record 26 percent of the electorate in 2016 with more than 80 percent of white born-again voters throwing support behind Trump, according to Time.Their support continued into 2020, as Lemons explores in his soon-to-be released book about Trump’s Faith Advisory Team's actions ahead of the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.Those leaders framed Trump’s efforts to remain in the White House as a mandate to “re-Christianize” America — and this prepared them to present Trump’s 2024 return as a resurrection, Lemons argues.In his interview with Raw Story, Lemons said faith leaders were able to make this pitch because Trump, in his first term, had bucked a political norm: he'd kept his promises to them.“Trump really delivered some significant wins for evangelicals,” Lemons told Raw Story. “That explains a lot of excitement.”That’s why, in 2024, roughly 80 percent of evangelical voters were once again willing to vote for a man convicted of fraud, found liable for sex abuse and accused of conspiring to steal an election, Lemons argued. When Trump promised an isolationist policy — they believed him.But as gas prices soar, evangelicals’ concerns have come to mirror those of Trump’s top critics, Lemons told Raw Story; that his Defense Department lacks an exit strategy and Iran has only been empowered by U.S. aggression.“If anything, Iran discovered that they had more control than maybe they even thought they had,” Lemons said, summarizing evangelicals’ views. “What's the end game here?”Recent polling from Reuters aligns with Lemons’ ear-to-the-ground perspective. In a June poll, about 54 percent of evangelicals said the war was not in line with their Christian values — and Trump's approval rating among evangelicals stood at just 52. “He really ran on ‘Isolationism of America’... the next thing you know, you're in a war,” Lemons said. Now, “There's anger in the evangelical community.”
France gripped by spreading student protests as PM calls crisis meeting
France's prime minister has convened a crisis meeting to address nationwide protests by high school students
Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan kill 10 civilians, Kabul says; Pakistan says only militants hit
Pakistan has carried out airstrikes in two Afghan provinces, targeting militant hideouts
Protesters against illegal immigration in South Africa call for more deportations
Hundreds of people have held a demonstration against illegal immigration in the South African city of Durban
‘We want justice’: series of rapes trigger mass protests at Indian universities
Women say nothing has changed since Delhi’s infamous Nirbhaya bus rape case 14 years agoThe posters, just like the women holding them, were taking no prisoners. “Girls don’t need curfews, rapists need consequences,” read one. “Lock your dicks rather than your women at home,” read another.As hundreds of women walked from the gates of their university campus into the streets of Delhi – where sexual harassment, assault, catcalling and molestation are a constant, daily threat – they shouted together in a chorus of rage and defiance: “We want justice.” Continue reading...
South African leader urges men to speak up on gender-based violence after series of killings
President announces measures amid anger at authorities over recent murders of womenSouth Africa’s president has called on men to take more responsibility for violence against women as he announced measures to tackle the problem, amid anger at authorities over a recent wave of murders.Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged that not enough had been done to protect women. He said police would be reviewing unsolved murders, attempted murders and serious sexual offences against women and children, as well as producing a funded plan to reduce the forensic backlog for such cases, both within 60 days. Continue reading...
MI5 China alert will send chill through UK’s cash-strapped universities
Institutions have for years turned to China for funding opportunities but national security concerns are mountingMI5 issues spy alert to UK universities over Chinese front company stealing researchThe security alert issued by MI5 regarding a Chinese state-owned conglomerate accused of conducting espionage in the UK reveals the extent to which British intelligence remains concerned about Beijing’s influence, and risks casting a shadow over UK-China cooperation at a time when the bilateral relationship is enjoying a revival.The UK’s domestic security service on Wednesday warned researchers and academics to cease work with the China Academy of General Technology (CAGT), an organisation MI5 described as a “significant threat”. Continue reading...
MI5 warns UK universities over ‘theft of tech secrets by Chinese front company’
Security service says academics should stop working with and taking grants from firm backed by Chinese intelligenceMI5 China alert will send chill through UK’s cash-strapped universitiesMI5 has issued a rare public warning to UK universities that China’s intelligence service is using a front company to pay for research by UK academics and steal the secrets of hi-tech projects.Britain’s domestic security service said researchers and academics should cease work with the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), sometimes also known as the China Academy of General Technology (CAGT).Additional reporting by Helena Horton Continue reading...
Burundi agrees to receive ‘third-country’ migrant deportees from US
Burundi joins several other African nations in accepting people deported under Trump’s hardline policyBurundi has agreed to join a clutch of other African nations in receiving migrants from other countries deported from the US under Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy.However, Burundi will only accept those not accused of crime or terrorism links, said Nancy Ninette Mutoni, a spokesperson for the country’s president, Évariste Ndayishimiye. Tuesday’s announcement gave no details of numbers, timing or financial details. Continue reading...
