Top World News

Jul 15, 2026 - World

Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief, John Micklethwait, stands by reporting, saying ministers who sued ‘imposed an extremely strained meaning on what was a solid ​story’Bloomberg News and one of its reporters have been ordered to pay S$460,000 (US$355,734) in damages after an article it published was found to have defamed two Singapore government ministers, the city-state’s high court said in a judgment released on Tuesday.Bloomberg and the reporter, Low De Wei, are liable to jointly pay S$230,000 to each minister, comprising S$170,000 in general damages and S$60,000 in aggravated damages, ⁠the judgment said. Continue reading...

Jul 15, 2026 - World

A former Republican strategist blasted President Donald Trump and his "vandals" for betraying Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) last crusade with "nonsense."During an episode of The Warning, Steve Schmidt talked about how Trump is "putting a great deal of money" into Russian President Vladimir Putin's pockets with the Iran war. Late senior Sen. Lindsey Graham had just come back from Ukraine and, as Schmidt noted, was ready to propose sanctions against Russia when he died."Lindsey Graham, a few hours before his death, was talking about his Russia sanctions bill," Schmidt said. "When Donald Trump launched his war with Iran, global oil prices spiked, putting a great deal of money into whose pocket? That's right, Vladimir Putin's pocket."Graham was a loyal Trump ally, Schmidt noted as he blasted "the shallowness, the abject stupidity of MAGA policy and the MAGA senators who are celebrated in too many quarters as statesmen as opposed to imbeciles."Schmidt didn't just go after Trump but also "Jared Kushner and his Abraham Accords, which are a disaster," and Kushner and "Steve Witkoff meddling around the world," calling it all "nonsense" that's leading to another war."They squeeze on the balloon, moving air around it in disruptive ways that are often, in the end, catastrophic," Schmidt said. "America losing a war to Iran means that there will be a bigger, more deadly war sometime in the next decade."Speaking about the bigger war, Schmidt continued, "All of the seeds are being laid for it right now, today, as we speak, by the foolish men and women who have followed Trump to the edge of the abyss and over it."

Jul 14, 2026 - World

Political heavyweight Pete Buttigieg predicted that Marco Rubio is never going to recover from "selling his soul" for one lie.During an interview on The Bulwark Podcast with former GOP operative Tim Miller, Buttigieg talked about how much Rubio has fallen in his eyes since becoming Trump's secretary of state.When Miller asked how Rubio has been doing, Buttigieg said, "If he hadn't asked for it, I would feel sorry for him," but criticized Rubio for testimony he gave before Congress in May 2025. Rubio claimed that no children had died as a result of the Trump administration's foreign aid cuts, Buttigieg said."When Marco Rubio lied to Congress about whether the aid cuts had killed children, when he stood there with a straight face and said no children died over this, when we already knew the names of some of the children who had been killed by this," Buttigieg said."Right then, you could just tell that this guy's just morally — and I hope politically — never going to recover from selling his soul," Buttigieg continued.Miller mentioned that the new book Regime Change revealed that Rubio was "supposed to be the normal, responsible adult in the administration." However, Rubio was "the point man" for cutting a deal with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to receive immigrants deported from the U.S., Miller said."You're going to have a gulag essentially in El Salvador," Miller said, summing up what Rubio negotiated. "We're going to send these people. We were sending innocent people there, and it was absolutely, I think, the most outrageous thing the administration has done."

Jul 14, 2026 - World

A Democratic lawmaker had a sharp critique for the Trump administration on Tuesday after President Donald Trump opted to back off plans to charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz.During a live segment with CNN anchor Boris Sanchez, Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) responded to Trump's decision change after the United States was mounting its military offensive in the region and preparing to restart its blockade of the waterway, facing pressure from several Gulf nations who have since offered to invest in the U.S."It's not a major reversal; it's Donald Trump's daily reversal," Crow said. "Literally, this changes by the day. One time the strait is open, the next day it's closed. One day we're going to charge a toll, the next day we're not. The next day, we signed a peace deal, an MOU. The next day we don't. This is what happens."The former Army Ranger said he wasn't surprised by the move."Let's just put it this way — who would have guessed that getting into another war in the Middle East without a plan, without an endgame, without a strategy, without allies, would possibly have ended up like this, right?" Crow said. "It is nuts that, where we are now, six months into this, we have spent over $100 billion! Service members have lost their lives. We've lost our credibility. The Iranian regime is actually more emboldened and has more control over Iran and the Iranian people than it did in February. This is an unmitigated disaster."

Jul 14, 2026 - World

Foreign policy expert Trita Parsi sounded the alarm Tuesday over what he suspected would be a “major escalation” from the United States, one he predicted would come “in the next coming days.”“I do suspect that there’s going to be a major escalation from the U.S. side in the next coming days… I think it’s going to be quite terrible,” Parsi said in a video interview published by Zeteo Tuesday.Parsi’s warning comes amid resumed hostilities between the United States and Iran, sparked by Iran’s strike on a container ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz, which Iranian officials claimed to be in violation of the tentative U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement. Iran has since declared the Strait of Hormuz “closed,” sparking multiple exchanges of fire between the United States and Iran.Beyond announcing that the U.S. would reinstate its naval blockade on Iran, President Trump has not disclosed further details about U.S. military plans. He did, however, promote commentary Tuesday morning encouraging him to “take Kharg Island,” a small Iranian island and oil hub. Experts have warned that seizing Kharg Island would result in "considerable" American casualties.Parsi, the co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, also warned that, even in the “best-case scenario,” the recent flare-up in hostilities would put the United States in a worse negotiating position than it was in last week.“In the absolute best-case scenario, the two sides, through the mediation of regional states, will find some sort of way back to the table. But nothing will have changed even by then – nothing has changed now,” Parsi continued. “The runway for the U.S. before the economic crisis is shorter. The only thing that may have changed is that the illusion that military power can rearrange facts on the ground in a manner that will favor your negotiation position may no longer be an illusion that exists, it may have been dispelled by this. But that’s in a best-case scenario!”‘Major U.S. Escalation’ Against Iran Soon, Experts Tell Zeteo by Mehdi HasanIn a Town Hall Q&A for paid subscribers, Zeteo assembled three Middle East experts to unpack developments in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza. It’s a conversation you won’t find in the mainstream media.Read on Substack