Top World News

Mar 20, 2026 - World

National intelligence director said voting machine seizure was requested by US attorney in Puerto Rico – who’s been trying to revive 2020 election conspiracy theoryWhen the US director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Thursday that her office seized voting machines from Puerto Rico, she said it was at the request of the office of the US attorney in Puerto Rico. Left unsaid was that the prosecutor, as the Guardian previously reported, has been the center of a push by Donald Trump supporters to revive a long discredited conspiracy theory purporting to link Venezuela to Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the conspiracy theory maintains, controlled electronic voting machines worldwide and remotely manipulated results in 2020 to deprive Trump of a presidential victory. Continue reading...

Mar 20, 2026 - World

The insects covered its largest area since 2018, despite threats from habitat loss, climate crisis and pesticidesThe population of monarch butterflies in Mexico increased 64% this winter, compared with the same period in 2025, offering a glimmer of hope for an insect considered at risk of extinction.The figures, released this week by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico, showed that the area occupied by monarchs expanded to 2.93 hectares (7.24 acres) of forest from 1.79 hectares (4.42 acres) the previous winter, the largest coverage since 2018. Continue reading...

Mar 20, 2026 - World

President Donald Trump said that Japan was declining to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a day after he made a joke about Pearl Harbor.Following his Thursday meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Trump told Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Friday that the country would not assist with the fallout from the war in Iran because of "constitutional constraints.""Japan is better ally than NATO," Trump reportedly said to MacCallum.Japan's constitution bans the use of force except in defense of its territory. It's unclear whether the Japanese Self-Defense Force could be used to escort ships through the Middle Eastern waterway.During his meeting with Takaichi, Trump compared his strikes on Iran to the bombing of Pearl Harbor."We didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor, OK?" the U.S. president joked.

Mar 20, 2026 - World

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been designated a "priority target" by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as federal prosecutors in New York probe his alleged ties to drug traffickers, according to people familiar with the matter and records seen by The Associated Press.

Mar 20, 2026 - World

Former modeling agent and longtime ally to President Donald Trump, Paolo Zampolli asked a top ICE official for help "to settle a personal score" and have the mother of his child deported during a custody battle, according to The New York Times. Zampolli, a now presidential special envoy, introduced Trump to the president's now wife Melania. He found out that his Brazilian ex-girlfriend, Amanda Ungaro, had arrested on charges of fraud at her work and in custody at a Miami jail — and last year talked to a top official at ICE, David Venturella, to see if she could be placed in ICE detention, citing that she was in the country illegally, The Times reported. The two had been going through a custody battle over their teenage son and "now he saw an opportunity" to try and get him back, Friday's report stated.A source familiar with Zampolli's communications and records acquired by The Times revealed that Ungaro was picked up from a Miami jail by ICE agents before she could make bail and later deported. Although this could have happened without her ex-boyfriend's involvement, it raises questions about how members of the Trump administration have used the federal government during Trump's second term to pursue personal vendettas. Zampolli denied to The Times that he sought special favors or that he had requested federal officials take Ungaro into custody. The Department of Homeland Security told The Times that Ungaro was detained and deported over an expired visa after being charged with fraud. “Any suggestion that she was arrested and removed for political reasons or favors is FALSE,” the DHS statement said.Zampolli has often bragged about his loyalty to the Trumps, and has known the president for more than 30 years. He even recruited Melania, a former model, from Slovenia. Zampolli also had ties to the late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. "In the city’s modeling scene, Mr. Zampolli also intersected with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who would later be accused of sexually abusing hundreds of girls and young women," according to The Times. "The men once discussed buying a modeling agency together, and Mr. Zampolli’s name appears several times in the millions of Epstein documents recently released by the Justice Department. "In one 2011 email, Mr. Epstein warned an Emirati businessman: 'Be careful, zampoli is trouble. Lots.' He added, 'He sells stories to the press.'"Zampolli has denied having a close friendship with Epstein. He added that his name was not included as frequently as other people, such as professors, celebrities or monarchs. “At least I was included, because if you’re not on the list, you’re a loser, right?” Zampolli told The Times.