World

WASHINGTON (AP) — The national debt surpassed a record $40 trillion on Wednesday, a staggering milestone as defense costs, social programs like Social Security and Medicare and interest on the burgeoning deficit make up an enormous share of federal spending. The milestone figure was recorded just five months after the U.S. hit a record $39 trillion debt in March. It …

President Donald Trump is rolling out yet another Iran war strategy in familiar fashion: with an all-caps threat. But the world will, as usual, have to wait to see whether he folds when the political costs pile up. Trump on Wednesday promised “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY” in a Truth Social post. His new approach …

Australia’s foreign minister has said she is “outraged” over an Israeli military decision not to launch a criminal investigation into the death of aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in an IDF strike. Frankcom was an Australian aid worker with World Central Kitchen (WCK) who was killed in Gaza with six other colleagues by an Israeli airstrike in April …

Former Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for wartime elections, in what many see as the biggest challenge to Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency since war broke out with Russia in February 2022. “Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,” said Fedorov, 35, in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday, adding that Ukraine is fighting “precisely because we want to …

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says a new batch of 83 Nigerian returnees from South Africa will arrive in the country on Wednesday. The Ministry’s Spokesman, Kimiebi Ebienfa, disclosed this in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja. According to him, the returnees were expected to depart Johannesburg at 3.35pm local time and to arrive in the Murtala Mohammed International …

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to bomb Oman because he is unhappy the country is close to a deal with Iran to manage ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, two regional officials said Tuesday, a day after Trump leveled the threat. The officials said the Trump administration has told Oman it is opposed to parts of …

One of the Trump administration’s biggest problems in extracting itself from the Iran war is the list of very absolutist goals that President Donald Trump and his team laid out. The goals have included complete Iranian surrender, regime change, Iran never getting a nuclear weapon and ending Tehran’s support for its Middle East proxy groups like Hezbollah. As the war …

  Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia on Sunday, killing at least six people in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial attacks of the war. Kyiv has stepped up its attacks on Russia this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones targeting military industries and energy facilities. It has also increasingly pummeled giant Wildberries depots, burning billions of dollars’ …

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s war against Iran is stretching the limits of U.S. aircraft carriers and leaving the western Pacific without one of the key American warships as China shows more signs of aggression. The USS George Washington is departing the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East amid growing concerns about …

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is ordering the U.S. Navy to remove the advanced system used to launch fighter jets from its newest type of aircraft carrier and return to using older steam catapults that he has long said he prefers, according to a directive issued Thursday. The new mandate would likely cost billions of dollars and revert the …